Local Field Factors in Dielectric Liquids: Cyclohexane and Ethyl Laurate

Local electric field factors have been calculated for cyclohexane and ethyl laurate liquids by using a force-field model for the local field response to an external field based on liquid configurations generated from molecular dynamics simulations. For cyclohexane, we found field factors up to around 1.5 and 2.0 at the carbon and hydrogen atoms, respectively. Ethyl laurate has larger local field factors, up to 3.5 at the carbon atoms and 2.4 at the oxygen atoms, respectively. The local field factors at the hydrogen atoms in ethyl laurate are similar to those of cyclohexane. The electric fields in liquids arising from the electronic polarization of the molecules by the external field can thus be considerably larger, here with up to a factor 3.5, than the applied electric field.