Dielectric behaviour of succinic acid doped Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA)

Abstract The present paper reports the dielectric behaviour of high molecular weight water soluble polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) system doped with a dicarboxylic acid (succinic acid). Doped PVA samples were synthesized in the laboratory using solution casting method by changing the concentration of succinic acid (0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 wt%) in PVA solution. These samples were characterised for their structural behaviour using FT-IR and XRD while dielectric measurements were done at a fixed frequency of 100Hz, 120 Hz, 1 kHz, 10kHz, 20 kHz and 100 kHz from room temperature to 65oC (< Tg=80oC of PVA). It was observed that dielectric permittivity (∈′) of 30wt% acid doped PVA significantly increased compared to undoped PVA. However, dielectric permittivity decreased with further rise in dopant content (> 30 wt%). At all frequencies, room temperature dielectric properties (∈′ and ∈′′) of both undoped and doped samples showed a frequency dispersive behaviour.