Study on chitosan film properties as a green dielectric

Abstract

Chitosan film dielectrics to produce an electrostatic capacitor were prepared by the solution cast technique. The charging and discharging of the capacitor were done using RC series circuit with DC voltage supply because chitosan has bipolar properties. First testing was by varying supply voltage of 1, 3, 5, 10 and 15 V, respectively, and could be determined that the most effective voltage for chitosan film can be well polarised is 5 V. The results of second testing for the use of 5 V supply showed that the capacitance of a chitosan film capacitor decreased with the increase in load value. For loads of 100, 1K, 10K, 100K and 1M Ω, the capacitance values of the chitosan film capacitor were 3.1725, 0.4136, 0.05379, 0.007917 and 0.001522 F, respectively. It was also found that the increase in voltage of the capacitor at charging process was faster for the lower load. Therefore, the research result has corresponded to the general formula that used to calculate the capacitance value and thus, the biopolymer chitosan has potential as a sustainable green dielectric.