Overall picture and details of diffusion dynamics for liquid benzene by quasielastic neutron scattering and mode distribution analysis

We investigated the diffusion dynamics of liquid benzene as a basic molecular liquid. Quasielastic neutron scattering (QENS) was utilized to elucidate the overall behavior of molecular diffusion in liquid benzene. Mode distribution analysis, which does not require specific model assumptions and can describe molecular dynamics by QENS as a distribution of Lorentz functions, revealed that the diffusion of benzene molecules is represented by three dynamic modes. The Q-dependencies of the scattering intensity and the relaxation time were analyzed using diffusion models constructed to match each dynamic mode. (1) The slowest mode is translational diffusion, described as continuous diffusion rather than jump diffusion. (2) The intermediate-speed mode is rotational diffusion, which is due to the three-dimensional reorientation of benzene molecules with a jump angle of approximately 90 degrees. (3) The fastest mode involves local fluctuations, which may originate from translational oscillations and librations of the benzene crystal. The overall picture of the diffusion dynamics and characteristics of the individual modes were clarified without using a model, which is a new approach in the field of diffusion dynamics of molecular liquids.