Secondary relaxations and electrical conductivity in hyperbranched polyester amides

Abstract

Broadband dielectric spectroscopy is used to investigate molecular dynamics and charge transport in three hyperbranched polyester amides with hydroxyl, phenyl, and stearate terminal groups. At higher temperatures, the dielectric spectra are interpreted in terms of hopping conduction in a spatially randomly varying energy landscape, whereas two secondary dipolar relaxations attributed to librations of the terminal and amide groups dominate the low temperature regime. Despite a shift of more than 3 decades in the dc conductivity upon variation of the end groups, the Barton-Nakajima-Namikawa relation is shown to hold. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.