Dielectric relaxation behavior of C5+ (70 MeV) swift heavy ion irradiated polyetheretherketone (PEEK) using TSDC technique

The dielectric relaxation characteristics of polyetheretherketone (PEEK) irradiated with C5+ (70 MeV) ion, have been investigated in the temperature range 60–230° as a function of poling temperature TP (50, 100, 150, and 200°C), poling field EP (200, 300, 400, and 500 kV/cm), and storage time ts (2, 24, 48, and 120 h), using thermally stimulated discharge current (TSDC) technique. The TSDC spectra show a prominent maximum around glass transition temperature (Tg ∼ 143°C) named as α-peak. This peak is attributed to the movement of ketone dipoles linked with the main chain. It is observed that the magnitude of α-peak increases with the increase in poling temperature and poling field. The peak current and area under the α-peak are found to be diminished with the increase of storage time ts for electrets. The β-peak (space charge peak) is absent in irradiated PEEK samples as compared to pristine PEEK samples. The results obtained, in the present studies, are compared with the results on pristine samples. The activation energies and pre-exponential factor for PEEK samples determined using Bucci plot method.