Study of electrical percolation phenomenon from the dielectric and electric modulus analysis

Abstract

Chitosan : AgI solid polymer composite films have been prepared by the well-known solution cast technique. Electrical impedance spectroscopy was used to investigate the electrical percolation threshold phenomenon in this work. A wide dispersion can be seen in dielectric constant spectra at low frequencies. The dielectric constant at selected frequencies as a function of AgI concentration indicates the occurrence of electrical percolation threshold via the appearance of two distinguishable regions. The behaviour of dielectric constant and DC conductivity vs. AgI concentration are almost the same at low and high filler concentrations. The steep increase of dielectric constant and DC conductivity from 5 to 10 wt% of AgI was observed and a plateau was achieved from 10 to 20 wt% of AgI. The pattern of real part of electric modulus (M′) at selected frequencies is similar to dielectric constant. The existence of distinct peaks in M′′ spectra with no corresponding peaks in ε′′ spectra indicated that ionic and polymer segmental motions are strongly coupled. Argand plots of M′′ vs. M′ was used to detect the relaxation type process. The Argand plots at different temperatures exhibit incomplete semicircular arc with a diameter below the real axis.