Dielectric permittivity, AC electrical conductivity and conduction mechanism of high crosslinked-vinyl polymers and their Pd(OAc)2 composites

Abstract

Semiconductor materials based on metal high crosslinked-vinyl polymer composites were prepared through loading of Pd(OAc)2 on both Poly(ethylene-1,2-diyl dimethacrylate) (poly(EDMA)) and poly(ethylene-1,2-diyl dimethacrylate-co-methyl methacrylate) (Poly(EDMA-co-MMA)). The thermochemical properties for both poly(EDMA) and poly(EDMA-co-MMA) were investigated by thermal gravimetric analysis TGA technique. The dielectric permittivity, AC electrical conductivity and conduction mechanism for all the prepared polymers and their Pd(OAc)2 composites were studied. The results showed that the loading of polymers with Pd(OAc)2 led to an increase in the magnitudes of both the dielectric permittivity and AC electrical conductivity (σac). The value of σac increased from 1.38 × 10−5 to 5.84 × 10−5 S m−1 and from 6.40 × 10−6 to 2.48 × 10−5 S m−1 for poly(EDMA) and poly(EDMA-co-MMA), respectively, at 1 MHz and 340 K after loading with Pd(OAc)2. Additionally, all the prepared polymers and composites were considered as semiconductors at all the test frequencies and in the temperature range of 300–340 K. Furthermore, it seems that a conduction mechanism for all the samples could be Quantum Mechanical Tunneling (QMT).