Hydration Behavior of Polymeric Materials in Aqueous Solution as Studied by Dielectric Relaxation Techniques

Abstract

Hydration behavior is essential information for a discussion on physicochemical characteristics of polymeric materials including polysaccharides in aqueous solution. In addition to a classical acoustic method, dielectric spectroscopic measurements over an extremely high frequency range beyond the relaxation frequency of water molecules are useful techniques to determine hydration numbers of solute molecules. Since this technique also provides information about how long hydrated water molecules stay in their hydration sites, i.e. a hydration lifetime, more detailed consideration of hydration behavior in aqueous systems has been dramatically developed in these years.