Dielectric relaxation spectroscopy in polymers: broadband ac-spectroscopy and its compatibility with TSDC

Dielectric spectroscopy provides information on molecular dynamics and free charge carriers. While a direct characterization of homogeneous material is possible, the permittivity of blends and mixtures also reflects the microstructure. Intrinsic parameters, such as relaxation time and relaxation strength of a polar component, are only obtained via an effective medium analysis. The superposition of independent relaxation processes can be analyzed in terms of 2-dimensional distributions of relaxation times and activation energies. Dielectric relaxation spectroscopy (DRS) and the measurement of thermally stimulated depolarization currents (TSDC) allow an independent evaluation and test of distribution functions.