AC and DC dielectric properties of some polypropylene/calcium carbonate composites

Abstract AC dielectric properties and thermally stimulated polarization (TSP) and depolarization (TSD) currents were studied in a series of CaCO 3 ‐filled polypropylene composites. The filler content (0 to 50 weight percent) and the average particle size (3.0 to 16.1 μm) at constant filler content (30 weight percent) were varied in separate groups of samples. In a third group of samples the filler (20 to 40 weight percent) was surface treated with stearates. The AC dielectric behavior of composites containing untreated fillers is largely determined by a small amount of adsorbed water. Upon heating, the dielectric properties show maxima (increasing with decreasing frequency) which disappear on cooling. In the case of stearate‐treated fillers the dielectric loss level is higher, the dispersion and loss curves on heating reflect a combination of dipolar and protonic processes with water desorption. In the dry state the onset of an audio frequency relaxation process is observed in the pre‐melting zone. The thermally stimulated currents of the composites containing treated and untreated fillers are also different. In the case of the untreated fillers the TSP curves show maxima indicating water desorption which are increasingly intense and roughly exponential with filler content. The high temperature conductivity and the intensity of the pre‐melting depolarization peak pass through a minimum as a function of filler content. Above 20 weight percent filler content the activation energy of high temperature conductivity decreases. In the case of the surface treated samples, the thermally stimulated response is different for “wet” and dried samples. The dry samples exhibit a relaxation between the amorphous and crystalline transitions of the matrix polymer which is probably due to interfacial relaxation caused by the enhanced surface conductivity of the stearate‐treated fillers.