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

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 degreesC to 189 degreesC. 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.