Online optical and dielectric monitoring of anisotropic epoxy/BaTiO3 composite formation tailored by dielectrophoresis

Anisotropic composites can be obtained by applying an alternating (ac) electric field, forming particle chains in its direction. The control of the particle chains will directly impact the final properties of the composite. Nevertheless, up to now the monitoring of the particle chain formation has only been made by direct optical or post-curing observations. A new technique for the monitoring of the particle dielectrophoretic alignment is proposed, based on the online measurement of the dielectric permittivity. Epoxy/barium titanate (BaTiO3) composites, in the range of 0.25 vol% to 20 vol% of BaTiO3 microparticles, are cured while an ac field (600 Vrms mm(-1)) is applied. The ac current magnitude and the phase shift angle are measured to determine the dielectric properties of the composite. The same experiment is achieved under optical microscope observation for 0.25 vol% to correlate the changes of the composite dielectric properties to the particle chain formation. As a result, the permittivity variations can be correlated to the particle chains formation and to their growth.