AC electrical measurements support microstructure model for carbonization: A comment on 'Dielectric relaxation due to interfacial polarization for heat-treated wood'

AC electrical measurements were carried out for heat-treated wood. Sugimoto and Norimoto (S&N), from these measurements, deduce that carbonized wood is a heterogeneous structure that exhibits a Maxwell-Wagner interfacial polarization, which occurs at the interface of isolated conductive regions in a dielectric matrix. The quasipercolation model explains the S&N data as well as other fundamental property changes that occur during carbonization of hard carbon materials. The important microstrucural changes in the quasipercolation model of carbonization inlcude: the predominance of small turbostratic crystallite clusters, and increasing volumetric dominance of an extensive percolating structure.