Effect of ZnO Nano-Particles on The Dielectric Relaxation Behavior and Thermal Stability of Polycarbonate Host

The influence of ZnO nanoparticles on the dielectric properties, dielectric relaxation behavior, and thermal stability of PC host was investigated at different ZnO nanoparticles concentration. The dielectric study was carried out over a frequency range from 500 Hz up to 1 MHz as a function of ZnO concentration. Results obtained from the best fitting of relative permittivity data with Yan and Rhodes model reveal that the dielectric relaxation is not a single relaxation process and there are two values of relaxation time for each nanocomposite at room temperature and domain frequency range. Furthermore, addition of ZnO nanoparticles to PC host changes the dielectric properties of PC, mainly, increases relative permittivity, dielectric loss, and AC conductivity while decreases the impedance values of PC host. Moreover, effect of temperature on AC conductivity of ZnO-PC nanocomposites at 1 kHz was also considered. Besides, dielectric relaxation behavior of PC was investigated at 165°C (above the glass transition temperature of PC) in the domain frequency range. At this elevated temperature (165°C), dielectric loss data shows a single relaxation peak (α-relaxation) in the domain frequency range and was successfully fitted with Debye equation. Also, it was found that as the content of ZnO nanoparticles increases in the PC host the frequency of the peak maximum ( fmax) shifts toward higher frequency value and as a result decreases the value of relaxation time. Additionally, this study shows that the isothermal effect of ZnO nano particles on the α-relaxation of PC host is similar to the effect of temperature. Both of them have a linear dependence with ln( fmax). Furthermore, addition of ZnO nanoparticles to PC host will decrease the thermal stability and glass transition temperature of PC host. Finally, there is a strong evidence from the obtained dielectric and thermal results that addition of ZnO nanoparticles to PC host will highly enhance the chain mobility and also increase the polar character of PC host.