Surface dielectric relaxation: probing technique and its application to thermal activation dynamics of polymer surface.
For dynamic analyses of a polymer surface, a dielectric relaxation measurement technique with parallel electrodes placed away from the surface was developed. In this technique, a liquid heating medium was filled in the space between the polymer surface and the electrodes. The construction that maintains the surface can clarify the physical interactions between the liquid and the bare surface and controlling the temperature of the liquid reveals the thermal activation property of the surface. The dielectric relaxation spectrum of the surface convoluted into the bulk and liquid spectra can be obtained by a reactance analysis and the surface spectrum is expressed with an equivalent resistance-capacitance parallel circuit. On the basis of the electromechanical analogy, the electric elements can be converted into mechanical elements that indicate the viscoelasticity of the polymer surface. Using these measurement and analysis techniques, the electric and mechanical properties of the surface of a gelatinized chloroprene rubber sample were analyzed.