Conditions for insensitivity of the microscopic-scale dielectric response to structural details of dipolar liquids.

ABSTRACT

Details of condensed matter structure can alter microscopic-scale response to electric fields by orders of magnitude. It is shown that dipolar liquids near boundaries is an exception where the response can be virtually insensitive to such details and can sense mainly the macroscopic dielectric permittivity. This insensitivity is due to fluidity, symmetry properties, and location of the fields' charges outside the liquid or inside impermeable solute cavities, which is the ubiquitous location in molecular scale phenomena.