The Radio-Frequency Dielectric Dispersion in Solid Ethyl Stearate

The dielectric properties of solid ethyl stearate were studied between −100° and the melting point at frequencies between 100 cycles/sec and 80 Mc/sec. The circular-arc locus lying within this frequency range in the β (tilted) form consists of a time-dependent and a time-independent part. It is more likely to arise from rotational disorder of tilted molecules than from regions of vertically stacked molecules. The width of the relaxation-time distribution function appears to decrease somewhat more rapidly with increasing temperature than would be expected for a temperature-independent distribution of heights of rotational-energy barriers.