Permittivity spectroscopy - an insight into materials properties

Permittivity Spectroscopy is a branch of the Impedance Spectroscopy specially tuned for measurements and analyses of dielectrics permittivity properties. The present paper presents experimental results on permittivity properties of composite objects in which a polarizable dielectric is distributed in a fine non-polarizable matrix (solid or liquid) measured in frequency range 1 MHz down to 0.01 Hz. Two types of objects are studied - water in porous functional ceramics and lubricating oils. In both systems gigantic enhancement of the effective capacitance is observed. The first series of experiments was performed on porous membranes of yttrium doped barium cerate, which is a proton conducting ceramics with hydrophilic properties. At a given level of watering the measured capacitance is sharply increasing (3 to 5 orders of magnitude) in the lower frequency range. The second example covers permittivity study of lubricating oils, where the increase is 2-3 orders of magnitude. The phenomenon of gigantic enhancement of the effective capacitance could be related to a formation of dipole volume structures induced by the external alternating electrical field.