Peculiarities of unusual electret state in porous zeolite microstructure

This study explores, for the first time to our knowledge, the influence of electret state on the dielectric parameters of porous zeolite of frequencies up to 106 Hz, at room temperature and normal atmospheric pressure. The I-V characteristics with unusual hysteresis loop in the wide pressure range were measured on zeolite plates having three different material characteristics: A) plate, cut out from a monoblock natural zeolite; B) plate, modified by silver ions, and C) plate containing silver nanoparticles. Zeolite samples were exposed to an electric field (E-p = 2 kV cm(-1)) in an air atmosphere for 240 min. It is established, that the stability of electret state and value of the dielectric response epsilon' and epsilon" for clinoptilolite Ag nanoparticles containing plates changed under influence of DC electric field. During some time the dielectric response is restored and observed unique phenomenon indicates on the electret behavior of clinoptilolite samples. These changes are observed within a few days consequently, there is long-term dynamics of the dielectric response changes. This interpretation is based on the assumption that due influence of the dc electric field part of the silver atoms in nanoparticles decays into ions and electrons. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.