Enhanced Dielectric Properties of Titanium Oxide (TiO 2 )/Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) Polymer Composites

Recently, polymer-ceramic composites are popular in energy storage applications because of their enhanced mechanical and dielectric properties because polymers have flexibility to combine with the high dielectric constant of ceramic fillers. This present study synthesized polymer composites using polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and titanium (IV) oxide (TiO 2 ) via a high-energy ball-milling technique. This technique allows synthesis of ceramic-polymer composites with varying filler TiO 2 concentration ranging from 2 - 10 mwt%. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirms crystallinity structure of polymer matrix, filler and polymer composites with confirmation of successful incorporation of filler TiO 2 in PVP matrix. The crystallite size of TiO 2 particles is determined to be ~17nm using the Debye-Scherrer formula by inclusion of instrumental broadening. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) provides morphological properties of polymer composites along with pure materials and confirms evenly dispersion of filler TiO 2 in PVP polymer matrix at low concentrations while some agglomeration of filler particles found at higher filler concentrations. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) analysis validates chemical bonding and interaction between filler particles and polymer matrix. Impedance spectroscopy used to measure dielectric parameters and analysis of these parameters shows enhancement in dielectric properties in comparison of pristine PVP. Dielectric constant of pristine PVP at 1 KHz found to be 4.73 and 134.03 for TiO 2 (10%)/PVP(90%). Key findings of this research study show TiO 2 /PVP composites synthesized using ball milling enhanced dielectric properties.