Dielectric response of poly(vinyl alcohol)-zinc selenide nanocomposite film

Poly(vinyl alcohol)-zinc selenide (PVA-ZnSe) nanocomposite films have been prepared, which offer higher effective permittivity than pure PVA. There is an about 2.5-fold increase (at 420 K) in the effective permittivity at 100 kHz for the 4wt% ZnSe nanostructure impregnated PVA film as calculated from the dielectric reinforcement function. Prevailing relaxation mechanisms in the nanocomposite films, within the frequency range of 100 Hz <= f <= 1MHz and in the temperature range of 298 <= T <= 420 K, have been discussed on the basis of available theoretical approaches in the literature. AC conductivity behavior reveals that correlated barrier hopping is the ac charge transport mechanism for the nanocomposite films, and the maximum barrier heights vary inversely with the weight percent inclusion of ZnSe nanostructures. (C) 2017 The Japan Society of Applied Physics