In the case of blends the ρv has values in between that of natural rubber and chitosan.
As the concentration of chitosan increases in the blend the ρv value decreases.
The increase in resistivity may be due to the enhancement in interfacial interaction between the two phases and reduction in polarity in the blends during vulcanization and MA treatment.
The decrease in resistivity upon heating isobserved.
chitosan exhibits high dielectric constant, especially at lower frequencies.
With increase in frequency at first the interfacial contribution vanishes followed by orientation polarization, which in turn reduces the dielectric constant at higher frequencies.
The orientation polarization requires more time compared to electronic and atomic polarization to reach static field value.
Therefore, at lower frequency region, the orientation polarization decreases with increase in frequency compared to electronic and atomic polarizations.
The interfacial polarization generally occurs at much lower frequencies.
The blend NR85CS15 shows the least frequency dependent and more stable.
Above 20% chitosan in the blend, the dielectric constant increased, which can be attributed to the change in overall polarity of the system with the addition of chitosan.
The cross-linked structure will avoid increase in free volume resulting in stable dielectric properties.
The dielectric constant decreases by vulcanization and it is more stable than pure blend at lower frequencies.
The vulcanized NR90CS10 blend is more stable than MA compatibilized NR90CS10 and the vulcanized blend is frequency independent at lower frequencies.
The dielectric loss increases with chitosan content.
The magnitude of dielectric loss is minimum for natural rubber and maximum for chitosan.
As the chitosan content increases, more dipoles are incorporated into the system that leads to a lag in the orientation of the dipoles upon the application of electric field.
The dielectric loss decreases by the vulcanization and compatibilization of the blend.
The AC conductivity study shows the vulcanized material sample becomes more insulative compared to pure and MA treated blends.