Comparative studies of the dynamics in viscous liquids by means of dielectric spectroscopy and field cycling NMR.

(1)H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) field cycling relaxometry has been applied to study the dynamics of homologues of glycerol (propylene glycol, 2,3-butandiol, glycerol, threitol, xylitol, sorbitol) and non-alcohol liquids (o-terphenyl, tristyrene, 3-fluoroaniline, m-toluidine). A broad range of temperatures (200-400 K) is covered, including the supercooled state. From the dispersion of the spin-lattice relaxation rate, R(1)(omega) = T(1)(-1)(omega), the susceptibility representation, omegaT(1)(-1)(omega), has been derived and compared with the susceptibility data from dielectric spectroscopy (DS). The DS spectra can be interpolated by a Cole-Davidson (CD) function, yielding correlation times which are attributed to the structural relaxation (alpha-process) in the supercooled state. In contrast to that, most of the (1)H NMR susceptibility spectra show, in addition to the alpha-relaxation peak, a low-frequency excess contribution with amplitudes varying among the systems. Exceptions are o-terphenyl and tristyrene for which DS and NMR susceptibility curves agree well and both can be reproduced by a CD function. Possible explanations of the low-frequency contribution are discussed. In particular the role of translational diffusion probed via the intermolecular coupling of (1)H spins is considered since it may likely generate the low-frequency excess intensity.