Agglomerates
of polar molecules in nonpolar solvents are selectively
heated by microwave radiation. The magnitude of the selective heating
was directly measured by using the temperature dependence of the intensities
of the Stokes and anti-Stokes bands in the Raman spectra of p-nitroanisole (pNA) and mesitylene. Under dynamic heating
conditions, a large apparent temperature difference (ΔT) of over 100 °C was observed between the polar pNA
solute and the nonpolar mesitylene solvent. This represents the first
direct measurement of the selective microwave heating process. The
magnitude of the selective microwave heating was affected by the properties
of the agglomerated pNA. As the concentration of the pNA increases,
the magnitude of the selective heating of the pNA was observed to
decrease. This is explained by the tendency of the pNA dipoles to
orient in an antiparallel fashion in the aggregates as measured by
the Kirkwood g value, which decreased with increasing
concentration. This effect reduces the net dipole moment of the agglomerates,
which decreases the microwave absorption. After the radiation was
terminated, the effective temperature of the dipolar molecules returned
slowly to that of the medium. The slow heat transfer was modeled successfully
by treating the solutions as a biphasic solvent/solute system. Based
on modeling and the fact that the agglomerate can be heated above
the boiling temperature of the solvent, an insulating layer of solvent
vapor is suggested to form around the heated agglomerate, slowing
convective heat transfer out of the agglomerate. This is an effect
unique to microwave heating.