Complex dielectric permittivities of the Ag2O-Ag2CO3 system at microwave frequencies and temperatures between 22 °C and 189 °C

Abstract.

The silver oxide-silver carbonate system comprises a thermally regenerable chemisorbent for carbon dioxide, which has been employed to revitalize CO₂-laden air within space suits. To evaluate the compatibility of these materials with thermal regeneration via dielectric heating, complex permittivities were studied over the microwave-frequency span between 4 and 26 GHz using a vector network analyzer based measurement system. Complex permittivities were determined over temperatures from 22 °C to 189 °C. The resulting values for the real and imaginary components of the complex permittivity, corresponding to polarization and energy-loss terms, respectively, were uniformly low for both the oxide and the carbonate under all test conditions. These results suggest that efficient dielectric heating of these materials is improbable.