On the dielectric and magnetic properties of nanocomposites

Abstract

We investigate nanocomposites, that is, dispersions of magnetite nanoparticles in an epoxy resin, by means of broadband dielectric and magnetic spectroscopy. The molecular dynamics of the polymer matrix is altered by the nanoparticles. Due to the formation of agglomerates neither permittivity nor permeability can be described with known effective medium models. We use the spectral representation (Bergman theorem) to show that a model-free evaluation of the low-frequency permeability of the nanoparticles can be achieved by combining dielectric and magnetic data. In addition, the ferromagnetic resonance is studied experimentally. It occurs near 3 GHz and is independent of the particle concentration.