Analyzing Frequency Spectra of Dielectric Loss to Clarify Influence of L,α-alanine Doping on Phase Transition in Triglycine Sulfate

Abstract

As reported in the literature, the doping of L,α-alanine (LA) led to increasing the phase transition temperature in triglycine sulfate (TGS) – a bio-ferroelectric material that has been widely applied in industry. The nature of this anomaly is commonly investigated by considerably complicated theoretical and experimental techniques. Unlike previous studies, the present work proposes a simple physical method of analyzing frequency spectra for dielectric loss to clarify the relationship between the movement of phase transition positions and the shift of relaxation frequencies observed in the spectra. The experimental results obtained for LA-doped TGS samples synthesized at different LA contents (0, 5, 10, 20, and 30 wt.%) were used for the analysis. It was indicated that the increase in phase transition temperature was accompanied by the decrease in relaxation frequencies due to the enhanced viscosity created by strong hydrogen bonds formed between amino acids of alanine and TGS structure.