Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy Fundamentals and Applications

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to inform you that a Topic entitled “Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy Fundamentals and Applications” is currently underway, inspired by the forthcoming 12th edition of the Conference on Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy and Its Applications, BDS 2024 Lisbon. Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy (BDS) is a powerful experimental technique allowing the investigation of the molecular dynamics of materials that respond to an outer oscillating electrical field. Nowadays, combined methods and equipment covering up to 16 decades of frequency allow us to explore a panoply of time scales going from short-range and very local processes to long-range cooperative processes, activated under a set of predefined temperatures (and pressures). Besides molecular dynamics, charge transport and interfacial phenomena in heterogeneous disordered systems, in addition to confinement and non-linear effects, are also able to be characterized. Moreover, time-dependent events can be dielectrically monitored as chemical reactions, molecular interconversion, phase transformations and physical ageing. BDS has been applied in different fields of science and technology from pharmaceutics and biology to energy and the environment. Therefore, a variety of materials can be investigated by BDS, like molecular and macromolecular compounds, plastic crystals, ionic liquids, liquid crystals, eutectic systems and newly emerging functional materials, as self-healing/recyclable dynamic networks. Given its multidisciplinary approach and extensive range of applications, this Topic will be greatly enriched by new themes and contributions from authors outside the dielectric community whose fundamental and/or applied research adds new synergies at both experimental and theoretical levels. The Topic may include, but is not limited to, the following themes that fit the scope of the participating MDPI journals:

• Polymer dynamics;
• Soft matter dynamics and phase transitions in amorphous, partially ordered and ordered systems;
• Impact of external variables in dielectric properties;
• Water, hydrogen bonded and biological systems;
• Charge transport and interfacial effects;
• Monitoring of chemical reactions, crystallization process and physical ageing;
• Ferroelectrics and ceramics;
• BDS in relation to other spectroscopic or scattering techniques;
• Confinement effects;
• Modeling, theory and molecular dynamics simulation.

We hope to attract papers providing different perspectives on this transversal subject and we look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Natália T. Correia
Dr. Teresa Viciosa
Dr. Hermínio Diogo
Topic Editors