Dielectric Relaxation in Dimethyl Sulfoxide/Water Mixtures Studied by Microwave Dielectric Relaxation Spectroscopy

Dielectric spectra of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)/water mixtures, over the entire concentration range, have been measured using the transmission line method at frequencies from 45 MHz to 26 GHz and at temperatures of 298-318 K. The relaxation times of the mixtures show a maximum at an intermediate molar fraction of DMSO. The specific structure of mixtures in different concentration regions was determined by the dielectric relaxation dynamics, obtained from the effect of temperature on the relaxation time. A water structure "breaking effect" is observed in dilute aqueous solutions. The average number of hydrogen bonds per water molecule in these mixtures is found to be reduced compared to pure water. The increase in the dielectric relaxation time in DMSO/water mixtures is attributed to the spatial (steric) constraints of DMSO molecules on the hydrogen-bond network, rather than being due to hydrophobic hydration of the methyl groups. The interaction between water and DMSO by hydrogen bonding reaches a maximum at a DMSO molar fraction of 0.33, reflected by the maximum activation enthalpy for dielectric relaxation in this concentration, suggesting the formation of a stoichiometric compound, H2O-DMSO-H2O. In highly concentrated solutions, negative activation entropies are observed, indicating the presence of aggregates of DMSO molecules. A distinct antiparallel arrangement of dipoles is obtained for neat DMSO in the liquid state according to the Kirkwood correlation factor (g(K) = 0.5), calculated from the static permittivity. The similarity of the dielectric behavior of pure DMSO and DMSO-rich mixtures suggests that dipole-dipole interactions contribute significantly to the rotational relaxation process in these solutions.