Electrical and Dielectric Properties of Biocomposite-based Vinyl Resin Emulsion Reinforced with Green Microcrystalline Cellulose

In this work, we investigated the electrical and dielectric properties of a new biocomposite-based vinyl resin emulsion reinforced with microparticles of green microcrystalline cellulose. We measured the electrical response of each sample by assessing AC electrical conductivity in the temperature range of 260–340 K and in the frequency range of 100 Hz–1 MHz. The electrical conductivity dispersion is well described by Jonscher’s power law. Accordingly, the associated mechanism conductivity is due to the correlated barrier-hopping conduction mechanism. Dielectric properties were performed using the electric modulus formalism and analyzed according to the Havriliak-Negami model. For the neat vinyl resin emulsion, the observed relaxation process is attributed to the α-relaxation. When the fillers are added to the vinyl resin emulsion, a water dipolar polarization is identified for temperatures below the glass transition temperature and a superposition of α-relaxation and an interfacial polarization, known as Maxwell–Wagner-Sillars, for temperatures above the glass transition point. The activation energies of these are determined according to the Arrhenius law. Dielectric analysis allowed for probing the reinforcement/matrix adhesion, which can control the electrical conductivity performance of the composite materials.