Study of electrical properties of polymethylmethacrylate treated in aqueous and saline environments

Research Unit « Physique des Matériaux Isolants et Semi-isolants », Preparatory Institute for Engineering Studies, University of Sfax, Route Menzel Chaker, km 0.5, BP 1172, 3018 Sfax, Tunisia

^a email: fatma_namouchi@yahoo.fr

Received: 10 November 2014
Revised: 13 January 2015
Accepted: 27 January 2015
Published online: 25 February 2015

Abstract

Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) is one of the most studied polymers in the last years due to its outstanding mechanical and physical-chemical properties. This material is used in various applications in which it can be subjected to different constraints. In this work, PMMA samples were submitted to thermal treatment (at 100 °C for 20 min) in aqueous and saline environments. We studied the hydrothermal effect as well as the saline environment effect on electrical properties of PMMA by means of thermal step method (TSM) and thermally stimulated depolarization current (TSDC) technique. It was found that polarization was significantly influenced by the hydrothermal treatment realized particularly in a saline medium. α- and ρ-relaxations were observed in all TSDC spectra. For each treated sample, ρ-relaxation peak is more intensive than the dipolar one and the corresponding releasing charge quantity increases.