Radar backscatter intensity data from the ERS-1 and ERS-2 scatterometers are compared with daily rainfall data in two areas in the Free State province of South Africa. Knowledge of the relation between daily rainfall data and ERS C-band scatterometer data for a specific area can be useful to make reliable soil moisture measurements. The assumption is made that an increase in rainfall will lead to higher radar backscatter data values. This is based on the fact that moisture increases the dielectric properties of surfaces. This leads to higher backscatter intensities when incident radar energy is reflected back to the sensor. Various techniques are used to study the relationship between daily rainfall data and ERS scattrerometer data. It includes correlations, interpolations, visual interpretations, statistical analysis, and a simple model. Weak positive correlations were found between radar and rainfall data in arid areas. This is supported by literature regarding the Sahel. No correlation was found in agricultural areas receiving more rainfall. Vegetation also increases radar backscatter intensities, even in the absence of rain. There is thus a relationship between rainfall and radar data but it is more visible in arid areas and over longer periods of time. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology / MA / Unrestricted

Dielectric properties play an influential role in the development of medical devices. Understanding the behavior of these properties and how they respond to external stimuli, such as heat, over an extended frequency has yet to be researched. The focus of this study is to examine the impact of temperature on dielectric properties from 500 MHz to 10 GHz in order to better match the antenna properties of medical applications to the dielectric properties of biological tissue in question; more specifically, microwave ablation, microwave hyperthermia, and thermal modeling of brown adipose tissue’s metabolic processes. The dielectric properties of biological tissue samples from porcine lung, liver, heart, skin, fat, and muscle as well as brown adipose tissue and white adipose tissue from rat have been tested. These results have then been used to develop medical applications involving microwave antennas.

Cellulose whiskers (CWs) obtained from naturally occuring cellulose are nano-inclusions which show a lot of promise as mechanical reinforcements in polymers. Typically, a relatively high content is added to realize improvement in effective mechanical behavior. This enhancement in modulus is usually followed by a modest increase in strength but generally the ductility and toughness decrease. Our approach is to use small concentrations of CWs so as not to detrimentally affect processability, toughness and ductility. By aligning the small concentrations, we target the same kind of improvement in modulus and strength as reported in the literature, but at much smaller volume contents. In this work, we investigate the effect of AC electric field on the alignment of dispersed nanoscale CW in a polymer. Polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) is used as the model polymer because of the good interaction between CWs and PVAc. A low concentration of 0.4wt% was used for the study. Two dispersion methods, namely basic and modified, were developed. The basic method led to micron scale dispersion. Using the modified method, CWs were individually dispersed in PVAc with average lengths and diameters of 260 nm and 8 nm respectively yielding an aspect ratio of approximately 30. The behavior of CWs (alignment and chain formation) under an applied electric field was found to be a function of applied electric field magnitude, frequency and duration. Following alignment, the CW/PVAc nanocomposites are thermally dried in the presence of electric field to maintain the aligned microstructure. Improvements in dielectric constant and mechanical properties were observed for the aligned cases as compared to random case and pure PVAc. The optimal electric field magnitude, frequency and duration for the alignment and chain formation were found to be 200Vpp/mm, 50 KHz for duration of 20 minutes for the microcomposite and 250Vpp/mm, 10KHz for a duration of 1hr for the nanocomposite. At 0.4wt% concentration, 21% increase in dielectric constant for the optimal nanocomposite case. Above Tg, a 680% improvement in elastic modulus at 0.4wt% concentration for the optimal nanocomposite case. The reason for the significant reinforcement is attributed to alignment (rotation and chain formation) and chain-chain interaction (3D network formation and hydrogen bonding).

Microwave dielectric resonators (DRs) are being widely used in microwave telecommunication devices owing to their excellent characteristics of suitable dielectric constant, good temperature stability, and low dielectric loss. In this study, the crystalline phase and the microwave dielectric properties of the (1-x)Al2O3 - xTiO2 (x=0.08, 0.12, 0.16) compositions with 2wt%, 4wt%, 6wt%, and 8wt% MgO-CaO-Al2O3-SiO2 (MCAS) glass addition have been investigated. By combining the material Al2O3 with negative temperature coefficient of the resonant frequency (£nf = -55 ppm/¢J) and the material TiO2 with positive £nf value (£nf = +450 ppm/¢J), it is desired to produce the ceramics with £nf ~0 ppm/¢J. The MCAS is used as liquid-phase sintering aid to lower down the sintering temperature. In the MCAS-doped (1-x)Al2O3 - xTiO2 system, the Al2TiO5 phase starts to appear at about 1250¢J, and then the crystalline intensity of Al2TiO5 phase increases with the increase of sintering temperatures and MCAS glass content, until the temperatures that TiO2 is consumed. As the sintering temperature increases, the maximum dielectric constants and Q¡Ñf values can be obtained at 1250¢J, and the £nf values shift from positive to negative. The optimum £nf value of ¡V0.6 ppm/¢J exists in the 88mol%Al2O3 - 12mol%TiO2 composition with 2wt% MCAS addition and sintering temperature of 1300¢J. The MCAS content, TiO2 content, and sintering temperature will result in the variation of microwave dielectric properties. In this study, MCAS-doped (1-x)Al2O3 - xTiO2 system exhibits the microwave dielectric properties of¡G £`r=7~9.5, Q¡Ñf=6500~11000, and £nf = -60 to +40ppm/¢J. By adjusting the MCAS content, TiO2 content, and sintering temperatures, ceramics with good microwave properties can be obtained in the MCAS-doped (1-x)Al2O3 - xTiO2 system.

<p>    </p> <p>To meet the needs of the high-end electronics and energy industry, it is important to operate these devices in elevated temperatures and under high voltage. The dielectric materials for advanced capacitors must have high temperature tolerance (Tg>80C) high dielectric constant, low loss and high breakdown strength to meet the demands of the future. In order to understand fundamental relationships between the processing, structural hierarchy and electrical properties, in this dissertation we focus on slow crystallizing PET/PEI polymer blends, crystallizable Nylon 12 and noncrystallizable Polyetherimide and its chemical variants. </p>

Yes / By means of die drawing technique at rubber-state, effect of the orientation of microstructure on dielectric properties of polypropylene/multi-walled carbon nanotubes nanocomposites (PP/MWCNTs) was emphasized in this work. Viscoelasticity behavior of PP/MWCNTs with MWCNTs weight loadings from 0.25 to 5 wt% and dielectric performance of the stretched PP/MWCNTs under different drawing speeds and drawing ratios were studied for seeking an insight of the influences of dispersion and orientation state of MWCNTs and matrix molecular chains. A viscosity decrease (ca. 30%) of the PP/MWCNTs-0.25wt% melt was obviously observed owing to the free volume effect. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) were adopted to detect the orientation structure and the variation of crystal morphology of PP/MWCNTs. Melting plateau regions, which indicated the mixed crystallization morphology for the stretched samples, were found in the DSC patterns instead of a single-peak for the unstretched samples. It was found that the uniaxial stretching process broke the conductive MWCNTs networks and consequently increased the orientation of MWCNTs as well as molecular chains along the tensile force direction, leading to an improvement of the dielectric performance.

Yes / In order to improve the frequency-dependent dielectric properties of the immiscible polymeric blends which were melt-compounded by composing poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) and low density polyethylene (LDPE), the layer multiplication and the solid phase orientation technologies were respectively adopted as two effective strategies to optimize the dispersion state and the orientation of internal microstructure, aiming at reducing physical porosity and improving the barrier performance as well as crystal phase of the polymer extrudates. Results comparison showed the dielectric properties were greatly dependent on the crystal type and the physical porosity density which were also emphasized as the interfacial effect in the previous work [ref. 29: Lin X et al, J Appl Polym Sci 2015; 132(36), 42507]. It was found that the multilayer-structure manipulation could substantially improve the dispersion state between the two immiscible components, enhance the mechanical performance and reduce the internal defects and increase the dielectric constant while keeping the dielectric loss stable. By uniaxial stretching the sample sheets at a rubber state temperature of ca. 10-20˚C below the melting point, crystal transformation was induced by increasing molecular chains orientation degree which was also contributed to the enhancement of the dielectric properties. These techniques implied the potential as a promising way for inducing functional structures of polymeric blends.

Microwaves heat food rapidly and foods are prepared in less time. However, due to non-uniform heating nature of microwave cooking, there exists a serious concern over complete elimination of pathogens in the food. There has been an increase in interest to accurately understand the behavior of different food materials in a microwave field and microbial inactivation during microwave cooking. Recent research showed that fat content in muscle food plays an important role in microbial inactivation by increasing the inactivation level with an increase in the fat level. It was also demonstrated that muscle food heats up differently than a vegetable food product. Cooking food in a microwave oven either by covering the food container or not results in significantly different temperature profiles. The current research attempts to use modeling techniques to analyze impact of these factors on microwave heating. Mathematical modeling is faster, easier and economically better than actual experiments in determining heating behavior of a microwave-cooked food. Though modeling cannot completely replace actual experiments, it can be used as a tool to understand the effects of various factors influencing the microwave cooking. A factor that is highly important during microwave processing is dielectric properties of the material. The interaction of microwave with the food is mainly based on its dielectric properties, which can change with temperature. Therefore, determination of dielectric properties of food with respect to temperature becomes critical. The current research project has two parts. One to determine the dielectric properties of food being tested and another is to employ mathematical modeling techniques to analyze the effect of fat content, food type and the effect of cooking food by covering the bowl using the lid and not covering bowl. Dielectric properties of ground beef patties at 4%, 9%, 20% fat levels and frozen broccoli were determined using an open-ended, 3.6 mm diameter, semi-rigid coaxial line with copper conductors, connected to a network analyzer. The properties were determined at various temperatures. Foods were measured in triplicate. Results showed that dielectric constant and dielectric loss factor of low fat ground beef were higher than that of high fat level ground beef. In addition, the dielectric properties of florets were lower than that of stem parts for frozen broccoli. A 1,200W, household type microwave oven was used in this study to heat the food. Food was placed in a microwave-safe glass bowl and cooked for 120 seconds. One headspace and three internal temperature measurements were recorded for every 0.6 seconds. Five replications were performed. Finite element method was used as modeling technique and temperatures were predicted. Experimental and predicted temperature values were compared. Results showed that the model used in the study was more suitable for modeling the uncovered cooking than covered cooking process. Modeling results also revealed that high fat ground beef patties reached higher temperature than low fat patties. In high fat meat products, fat content also contributed to increase in temperature during microwave heating. In vegetable products and low fat meat food, moisture content is mainly responsible for microwave heating. A more extensive study on critical fat level above which fat content helps in increasing temperature is needed. In addition, inclusion of steam properties in the headspace for modeling the covered cooking is recommended. / Master of Science

Ceramics and polymer-ceramic composites associated with high dielectric constants are of both scientific and industrial interest as these could be used in devices such as capacitors, resonators and filters. High dielectric constant facilitates smaller capacitive components, thus offering the opportunity to miniaturize the electronic devices. Hence there is a continued interest on high dielectric constant materials over a wide range of temperatures. Recently, CaCu3Ti4O12 (CCTO) ceramic which has centro-symmetric body centered cubic structure has attracted considerable attention due to its large dielectric constant (ε ~104-105) which is nearly independent of frequency (upto 10 MHz) and low thermal coefficient of permittivity (TCK) over 100-600K temperature range. Apart from the high dielectric ceramics, high dielectric polymer-ceramic composites have also become promising materials for capacitor applications. By combining the advantages of high dielectric ceramics and low leakage behaviour of polymers, one can fabricate new hybrid materials with high dielectric constants, and high breakdown field to achieve high volume efficiency and energy storage density for capacitor applications. The CCTO polycrystalline powders were generally prepared by the conventional solid-solid reaction route with CaCO3, TiO2 and CuO as the starting materials. This method of preparation often requires high temperatures and longer durations. To overcome these difficulties, in the present investigations, an attempt has been made to synthesize CCTO by adopting microwave assisted heating technique and wet chemical synthesis routes. Also the CCTO crystallites (size varying from nano to micrometers) incorporated in the Polyvinyliden fluoride (PVDF) and Polyaniline (PANI) matrix and several composites with high dielectric constants were fabricated and investigated. Further, the high dielectric constant glasses in the system (100-x)TeO2-xCaCu3Ti4O12, (x=0.5 to 3) were fabricated by the conventional melt-quenching technique and their structural and dielectric properties were studied. The results obtained pertaining to these aforementioned investigations are classified as follows. Chapter 1 is intended to give basic information pertaining to the dielectrics and various mechanisms associated with high dielectric constants. Brief exposure to the high dielectric constant materials is also given. The structural aspects of CCTO, various synthetic routes adopted for the synthesis and the origin of the dielectric anomaly in CCTO are elaborated. In addition, basic information about the high dielectric polymer-ceramic composites and glasses are provided. In chapter 2 the various experimental techniques that were employed to synthesize and characterize the materials under investigation were discussed. Chapter 3 reports the synthesis and characterization of CaCu3Ti4O12, (CCTO) powders by microwave assisted heating at 2.45 GHz, 1.1kW. The processing and sintering were carried out at different temperatures for varied durations. The optimum calcination temperature using microwave heating was found to be 950oC for 20 minutes to obtain cubic CCTO powders. This is found to be fast and energy efficient as compared to that of the conventional methods. The structure, morphology and dielectric properties of the CCTO ceramic processed by microwave assisted heating were studied via X-ray diffraction, Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and impedance analyser. These studies revealed that, the microwave sintered (MS) samples were less porous than that of the conventional ones. Relative density of about 95% was achieved for the MS pellets (1000oC/60min) while for the conventional sintered (CS) pellets (1100oC/2h) it was only 91%. The dielectric constants for the microwave sintered (1000oC/60min) ceramics were found to vary from 11000 to 6950 in the 100 Hz to 100 kHz frequency range. The presence of larger grains (6-10μm) in the MS samples contributed to the higher dielectric constants. Chapter 4 deals with the synthesis of complex oxalate precursor, CaCu3(TiO)4(C2O4)8 • 9H2O, by the wet chemical route. The various trials and the different reaction schemes involved for the preparation of complex oxalate precursor were highlighted. The oxalate precipitate thus obtained was characterized by the wet chemical analyses, X-ray diffraction, FTIR absorption and TG/DTA analyses. The complex oxalate precursor, CaCu3(TiO)4(C2O4 )8.9H2O was subjected to thermal oxidative decomposition and the products of thermal decomposition were investigated employing XRD,TGA, DTA and FTIR techniques. Nanocrystallites of CaCu3Ti4O12 with the size varying from 30-200 nm were obtained at a temperature as low as 680oC. The nanocrystallites of CaCu3Ti4O12 were characterized using Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) and optical reflectance techniques. The selected area electron diffraction (SAED) pattern with the zone axis [012] and spot pattern in electron diffraction (ED) indicate their single-crystalline nature. The optical reflectance and ESR spectra indicate that the Cu (II) coordination changes from distorted octahedra to nearly flattened tetrahedra (squashed) to square planar geometry with increasing heat treatment temperature. The powders derived from the oxalate precursor have excellent sinterability resulting in high density ceramics which exhibited giant dielectric constants upto 40,000 (1 kHz) at 25oC, accompanied by low dielectric loss < 0.07. The effect of calcium content on the dielectric properties of CaxCu3Ti4O12 (x=0.90, 0.97, 1.0, 1.1 and 1.15) derived from the oxalate route was described in Chapter 5. The structural, morphological and dielectric properties of the ceramics were studied using X-ray diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscope along with Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis (EDX), and Impedance analyzer. The X-ray diffraction patterns obtained for the x= 0.97, 1.0 and 1.1 ceramics could be indexed to a body– centered cubic perovskite related structure associated with the space group Im3. The microstructural studies revealed that the grains are surrounded by exfoliated sheets of Cu-rich phase. The microstructure that is evolved for the Ca0.97 ceramic more or less resembles that of the Ca1.0 ceramic, but the density of such exfoliated sheets of cu-rich phase is lesser for the Ca0.97 ceramic and none for Ca1.1 ceramic. The sintered pellet (x=0.97) was ground and thinned to the required thickness (~ 20nm) and analyzed using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the ceramics exhibited non-linear behaviour. The dielectric properties of these suggest that the sample corresponding to the composition x=0.97, has a reduced dielectric loss while retaining its high dielectric constant. Chapter 6 illustrates the results concerning the fabrication and characterization of nanocrystal composites of Polyaniline (PANI) and CaCu3Ti4O12 (CCTO). These were prepared using a simple procedure involving in-situ polymerization of aniline in dil. HCl. The PANI and the PANI-CCTO composites were subjected to X-ray diffraction, Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), Thermo gravimetric, Scanning Electron Microscopic (SEM) and Transmission electron microscopic analyses. The FTIR spectra recorded for the composites was similar to that of pure PANI unlike in the case of X-ray diffraction wherein the characteristics of both PANI and CCTO were reflected. The TGA in essence indicated the composites to have better thermal stability than that of pure PANI. The composite corresponding to 50%CCTO-50%PANI exhibited higher dielectric constant (4.6x106 @100Hz). The presence of the nano crystallites of CCTO embedded in the nanofibers of PANI matrix was established by TEM. The AC conductivity increased slightly upto 2kHz as the CCTO content increased in the PANI which was attributed to the polarization of the charge carriers. The value of dielectric constant obtained was higher than that of the other PANI based composites reported in the literature. Chapter 7 deals with the fabrication and characterization of diphasic Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)-CCTO composite. The CCTO crystallites (size varying from nano to micrometers) incorporated in the Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and composites with varying CCTO content were fabricated. The structural, morphological and dielectric properties of the composites were studied using X-ray diffraction, Thermal analysis, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopic (TEM) and Impedance analyzer. The room temperature dielectric constant as high as 95 at 100Hz has been realized for the composite with 0.55 Vol.fraction of CCTO (micro sized crystallites), which has increased to about 190 at 150oC. Whereas, the PVDF/CCTO nanocrystal composite with 0.13Vol.fraction of CCTO has exhibited higher room temperature dielectric constant (90 at 100Hz). The PVDF/CCTO nanocrystal composite was further investigated for the breakdown strength and electric modulus. The breakdown strength plotted against the dielectric constant evidenced an inverse relationship of breakdown voltage with the dielectric constant. The relaxation processes associated with these composites were attributed to the interfacial polarization or Maxwell-Wagner-Sillars (MWS) effect. Various theoretical models were employed to rationalize the dielectric behavior of these composites. The fabrication and characterization details of optically clear colored glasses in the system (100-x)TeO2-xCaCu3Ti4O12, (x=0.5 to 3 mol%) are reported in Chapter 8. The color varies from olive green to brown as the CaCu3Ti4O12 (CCTO) content increased in TeO2 matrix. The X-ray powder diffraction and differential scanning calorimetric analyses that were carried out on the as-quenched samples confirmed their amorphous and glassy nature respectively. The optical transmittance of the glasses exhibited typical band-pass filter characteristics. The dielectric constant and loss in the 100 Hz-1MHz frequency range were monitored as a function of temperature (323K673K). The dielectric constant and the loss increased as the CCTO content increased in TeO2 at all the frequencies and temperatures under study. Further, the dielectric constant and the loss were found to be frequency independent in the 323-473 K temperature range. The value obtained for the loss at 1MHz was 0.0019 which was typical of low loss materials, and exhibited near constant loss (NCL) contribution to the ac conductivity in the 100Hz-1MHz frequency range. The electrical relaxation was rationalized using the electrical modulus formalism. These glasses are found to be more stable (a feature which may be of considerable interest) as substrates for high frequency circuit elements in conventional semiconductor industries. Thesis ends with summary and conclusions, though each chapter is provided with conclusions and complete list of references.

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