Thermally Stimulated Depolarization Current from HCl-Doped Ice

Abstract

Thermally stimulated depolarization current (TSDC) technique has been applied to investigate the dielectric properties of the HCl-doped ice. Three TSDC peaks were found from HCl-doped ice as well as ice of pure water. Among three peaks, the α and γ peaks are affected strongly by the concentrations of HCl. We found that the pH numbers are linearly proportioned to the ratios of the areas of the peaks. The relation between xα (the ratio of the area of α peak to the area of β peak) and pHHCl,α was found to be pHHCl,α=7.77−2.86xα. This result suggests the possibility of the development of an apparatus to measure the pH number of acid contaminated water. The activation energies correspond to depolarization processes reflected in the α, β, and γ peaks that were found to be 267±19 meV, 431±30 meV, and 635±44 meV, respectively.