Dielectric study of poly(methyl methacrylate) microcapsules in particular reference to the effect of the frequency dependence of the permittivity of the capsule wall

The dielectric behavior of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) microcapsules was analyzed theoretically by taking account of the frequency dependence of the relative permittivity _s and the electrical conductivity _s of the capsule wall. For comparison, similar analysis was applied to polystyrene (PS) microcapsules which have frequency-independent _s and _s . The behavior of _s and _s of the PMMA microcapsules was assumed to be represented by a dielectric relaxation of them-th power type on the basis of dielectric data on underwater PMMA films. By means of a theory of the interfacial polarization, some consideration was carried out regarding the effect of the frequency dependence of _s and _s on the dielectric behavior of the PMMA microcapsules. The consideration led to predictions that the frequency dependence of _s and _s causes (i) the variation in the relaxation intensity with the change in the conductivity of suspending medium, (ii) the frequency dependence of the permittivity at low frequencies and (iii) the frequency dependence of the conductivity at high frequencies. The theoretical prediction (i) was verified by observed data, (ii) and (iii) remaining unverified owing to the experimental difficulty.