Comparative study of poly(2,3 and 4 methyl cyclohexyl methacrylate)s. Dielectric relaxation spectroscopy (DRS)

The relaxation properties of poly(methyl cyclohexyl methacrylate)s (P2MCHMA), (P3MCHMA), (P4MCHMA) were analyzed. Dielectric spectroscopy (DS) techniques were used for this purpose. These polymers exhibit prominent α peaks, associated to the dynamic glass transitions, and then poorly defined β-relaxations and two other relaxation zones labelled as γ- and δ-relaxation in order of decreasing temperatures. The α relaxation processes were analyzed by means of the free volume theory, using the Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann-Hesse (VFTH) equation and in terms of the Havriliak-Negami (HN) empirical equation. Previously to these analyses, conductive contributions to the loss permittivity were subtracted. The apparent activation energies for the secondary processes under study have been calculated by means of Arrhenius. Comparison with previous relaxation results of poly(cyclohexyl methacrylate) (PCHMA), i.e. the polymer without substituents in the cyclohexyl ring, has been also carried out. In this way, changes in the glass transition absorptions as well as in the secondary processes have been discussed.