Dielectric relaxation of poly(ester-ether-carbonate) multiblock terpolymers

The dielectric properties of a series of poly(ester-ether-carbonate) multiblock terpolymers have been investigated as a function of ether and carbonate composition in the frequency range of 10³–10⁶ Hz. The degree of polymerization of the samples was determined by viscosimetry measurements. The weight fraction, degree of crystallinity, and melting temperatures were characterized by means of x-ray diffraction and DSC methods. Dielectric behavior has been discussed in terms of Havriliak-Negami formulation. The variation of the dielectric properties with temperature has been associated with two relaxation processes: a) the -relaxation process observed at low temperature, which is associated to local motion of polar groups attached to both the soft and the hard segments, and b) the process assigned to long-range molecular motions above the glass transition temperature.