Dielectric and thermal studies on gel grown strontium tartrate pentahydrate crystals

摘要

Results of dielectric and thermal studies on strontium tartrate pentahydrate crystals are described. The value of dielectric constant is shown to be independent of temperature till 360 K at all the frequencies (110-700 kHz) of the applied a.c. field. It increases abruptly achieving a peak value of 25.5 at 100 kHz; the peak value being strongly dependent on frequency. In the temperature range, 87 < T < 117°C, the value of ε' falls suggesting a transition at around 100°C or so. The dielectric constant, ε', of the material is shown to be frequency dependent but temperature independent in the pre- or post-T_c range 87 < T < 117°C, suggesting that the contribution towards polarization may be due to ionic or space charge polarization which gets eliminated at higher frequencies. The ferroelectric transition is supported by the results of thermoana-lytical studies. It is explained that crystallographic change due to polymorphic phase transition may be occurring in the material, besides the change due to loss of water molecules, which leads to the dielectric anomaly at around 100°C. Coats-Redfern approximation method is applied for obtaining non-isothermal kinetic parameters leading to calculation of activation energies corresponding to three decomposition stages of material in the temperature ranging from 379-1113 K.