Thermal and dielectric performance of melt processed polycarbonate /CaCu3Ti4O12 composites

Composites comprising Polycarbonate (PC) and CaCu₃Ti₄O₁₂ (CCTO) were fabricated via melt mixing followed by hot pressing by employing both micron (1-7μm) and Nano (75-100 nm) sized crystallites of CCTO. Both the micro and nano CCTO powders were self-synthesized using solid state and co-precipitation routes respectively. These were characterized using X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Thermo Gravimetric (TGA), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM),Impedance analyzer for their structural, morphology and dielectric properties. Nanocomposites inducted with nCCTO-50 wt% exhibited better thermal stability than that of pure PC and composite embedded with micron sized CCTO. However, there was no significant difference in the glass transition (T_g) temperature between the polymer and the composites. The Nano composites (PC+nCCTO-50 wt%) exhibited 2.5 times higher permittivity values as compared to that of composites having 50 vol% micron sized CCTO crystallites.