A new physical model of relative permittivity and derived quantities of fractal structures, contrary to the current concept, predicts their dependence on the fractal dimension (D) and on the extent (R) of the considered structure. The scaling of considered quantities predicted by our theory is R D-d , where d is dimension of Euclidean space. Hence, fractality, a feature often found in physical, chemical and biological systems, influences also basic properties of such systems that, so far, were believed to be material and not structure related. The theory has been experimentally verified by electrochemical measurements of capacitance of adsorbed layers of nonionic surfactant Triton-X-100 and linoleic acid that have fractal structure. The experimental results, substantiating theoretical predictions, are presented and the influence of relevant parameters is discussed.
IntroductionThe dielectric features of material, relative permittivity, susceptibility, polarizibility and related properties such as capacitance play a significant role in various chemical, physical and biological systems, and on scales ranging from microscopic to macroscopic. Among other things capacitance is link to the knowledge of the fluctuations of several physical quantities, e.g. voltage and electromagnetic field fluctuations, 1-6 dipole moment, 5-7 pH and charge, 8 and also to polarizibility and dielectric dispersion of colloidal and polyelectrolite systems [5][6][7] . Hence, it is crucial for understanding of biological systems that include ionic channels and cell membranes, [9][10][11] but also other systems such as adsorbed and spread films [12][13][14] . On the other hand it has been shown that many of these systems are fractal structures or exhibit fractal behavior, 15 and can be described with effective fractal dimension D. Therefore it was worthwhile to examine the possible influence of fractal geometry on fundamental and derived electric properties. In that context we examine the relative permittivity and specific capacitance of fractal structures and their dependence on geometrical features.The notion of these quantities in classical (non-fractal) system implies that they are constant and characteristics of the material of the considered system be it physical, chemical or biological.Starting from considerations of fundamental material properties we have developed a general theoretical model that predicts dependence of relative permittivity and consequently Cs of fractal structures (e.g. adsorbed layer, molecular or particle aggregates, porous material etc.) on structure size and fractal dimension. These theoretical predictions have been experimentally verified by electrochemical measurements of capacitance of adsorbed layers possessing fractal structure, in 3 conjunction with recently introduced method for determination of fractal dimension of such layers 16 . This specific testbed was chosen because structural and dynamic properties of adsorbed molecular films are of both fundamental and applied interest in diverse areas. These ...