A dielectric spectroscopy study of the polystyrene/nanosilica model system

In this study a simple solvent blending technique is used to produce silica/polystyrene nanocomposites. Dielectric spectroscopy is then used to measure both the real and imaginary permittivity of the samples. The nanosilica/polystyrene system is characterized over a range of different filler loadings, and additionally, as a function of temperature. To supplement this, absorbed water is used as a dielectric probe to explore molecular relaxation processes at the nanoparticle interfaces.