Factors Affecting the Location of the Peak Above TG in TSD Currents in Polystyrene

For polystyrene, independent measurements of dielectric relaxation time ¿d determined from the TSD ¿ peak and of bulk conductivity a show that the relation ¿¿d= ¿0¿ holds. Space charge ¿ peaks are known to be hard to reproduce in TSD experiments. Factors such as electrode - sample contact, applied voltage, sample preparation and number of free charge carriers are examined separately and lead to consistent results. In polystyrene containing 1% sodium acetate segregation occurs at high temperature and the p peak resembles that of the parent polystyrene. When the salt is well dispersed this is no longer the case: the space charge peak is shifted to lower temperature when the number of free carriers increases.