Dielectric Properties of Polypropylene/Polystyrene Blends

Polyolefins are currently used as electric insulators in engineering applications. Blending polymers is one of the ways to obtain materials with enhanced specific properties such as electrical, mechanical or rheological properties. Usually polymers are immiscible together, thus the resulting properties are directly related to microstructure of the blends. In this paper, the dielectric properties of polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS), two immiscible polymers and their blends, were investigated at a range of concentration where these two polymers form a co-continuous structure where one of the polymer percolates through the other one, and at lower concentration of the minor (or dispersed) phase where it can form a droplet-type structure, the minor phase being embedded into the matrix of the major (or dispersing) phase. The purpose is then to determine the evolution of the electrical properties according to the amount of each polymer involved in the blend in order to determine the best ratio for specific applications.