Effect of chemical treatments on polarization and dielectric properties of Kumpang wood reinforced epoxy composite

Abstract

The polarization process, such as orientational, space charge, atomic and electronic polarization, were studied for the wood reinforced epoxy composites with different fiber weight percentages, chemical modification, and frequencies from a range of 100 Hz to 2 MHz, respectively. The dielectric test for all composite samples was conducted to identify the composite's dielectric properties to investigate the behaviors and contribution of the polarization process at different conditions. The composite's permittivity was increasing as the fiber content increasing in which this increase was high at low, medium frequencies due to interfaces and orientation polarization and low at high frequencies, which could be the reason for decreasing interfacial and orientational polarization. The increase in fiber content resulted in higher dipolar groups in the material, enhancing orientational polarization. The chemical treatments reduced the water content and strong interface bonding; hence less orientation and interfacial polarization were observed. It was evident that the frequency, fiber content, and chemical treatments directly affect the dielectric properties with an increase of 39 percent from fibers' addition. The highest observed permittivity was 3.68, which is appropriate for the low-k dielectric application, and the lowest loss observed was 0.098 observed at 20 wt% fiber loading.