Examining Polarization in an Electric Field of Different Materials

Abstract

Polarization technically means separation.  In physical sciences polarization can be in different aspects, from waves to particles. Light for example polarizes when it travels through a glass prism; charged particles get polarized in the presence of electric field. This work concentrates on electric polarization which is the separation of the center of positive charge and the center of negative charge in a material. The theme of this work is “examining polarization in an electric field”. The relationship between electric field and polarization was examined using some randomly selected sample materials which are: Methanol, SiO₂, Concrete, Water (@20^oC), and paper. Further examination was also carried out on how Physical State and chemical structure of a material affect polarization by observing the sample materials. The examination was carried out by calculating the Polarization of the sample materials at a range of electric field values 1 x 10⁴ to 1 x 10⁵ NC^-1 at a sample interval of 1 x 10⁴ NC^-1 using MATLAB computer programming software. The results of the polarization were plotted against the electric field; a positive straight line graph was observed which implies that electric polarization of a material increase with increase in electric field. A combined graph of electric field against polarization of all the sample materials was also plotted using Microsoft Excel. It was observed that the sample materials in liquid form had enormously higher electric polarization than the sample materials in solid form when place in the same magnitude of electric field. This shows that the tighter the particles of a material are to each other, the lower the electric polarization. Also it was observed that water with higher polarization compared to methanol, had higher polarization than methanol (with both materials in liquid form); concrete, which contains more polar particles than Silicon dioxide and paper, was also seen to have higher polarization that Silicon dioxide and paper at the same electric field value. This observation supports the fact that the presence of polar particles in a material support polarization.        

Key words: Examining, polarization, electric field, polar particles, methanol.