Discussion on impedance measurements and bulk ohmic conductivity in lossy dielectrics

Not all dielectrics are perfect. The experimentalist would know how materials would react to an external excitation, and would record bulk conductivity values depending on their test setups and measurement system. To measure the correct bulk conductivity isothermal time domain measurement at room temperature could take long times and requires good current measurement and sometimes high voltage setups. Frequency domain measurements on the other hand have their advantages based on the frequency-temperature superposition and cost of instrumentation. This does not mean that the time-temperature superposition is not plausible; however, it is not common to perform measurements. In this contribution details of studying bulk conductivity in lossy dielectric will be presented with straight forward numerical analysis tools. Numerical data from synthetic data will be used to illustrate how to separate charge transport (bulk conductivity) from polarization current. The synthetic data were generated using empirical formulas and different temperature dependencies. It is recommended that the lossy dielectrics analyzed in the complex resistivity level.