Investigation of electric properties of flax reinforced polypropylene/strontium titanate composite for multilayer dielectric applications

Electrical properties such as dielectric constant, dissipation factor, capacitance, and conductivity are some of the properties that are required to be investigated when a novel composite is fabricated. This research aims to achieve a low dielectric constant (less than 4.2), lowered dissipation factor, lowered conductivity by fabricating a novel natural fiber reinforced polymer composite and investigating its properties. In this research, polypropylene with 14 wt% of strontium titanate, 8 wt% of treated flax fibers was fabricated using compression molding and tested for their dielectric and conductive properties. The capacitance and dielectric constant were significantly higher (43 percent) than that of pure PP or PP-flax, and a gradual decrease was observed as the frequency was increased. The dissipation factor and conductivity were found to be higher for pure PP. However, the full composite exhibited moderate conductivity showing that delays in charge losses could occur, making it an ideal composite for dielectric multilayer applications.