www.nature.

com/scientificreports

OPEN Characterizing the dielectric

properties of carbon fiber
at different processing stages
Hsien‑Wen Chao1, Hung‑Chun Hsu1, Yen‑Ren Chen2 & Tsun‑Hsu Chang1*

The polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers go through a series of chemical reactions in various processing
temperatures/stages and finally turn into the so-called carbon fibers. Oxidization is the first stage, and
it takes the largest proportion of the entire processing time for the tremendous change from a chain
texture to a ladder texture. The pre-carbonization of carbon fibers is then achieved using a furnace
with a higher processing temperature (typically at 700–900 °C). During the reaction processes, the
color of the fibers changes from white (PAN) to light black (oxidation), and eventually to black (pre-
carbonization). Characterizing the complex permittivity helps us determine the carbonization status
of the fibers. This work employed the enhanced-field method (EFM) and the contour mapping method
to determine the fibers’ dielectric properties for the first time. Results show that both the real and
imaginary parts of permittivity increase as the processing temperature rises. The dielectric constants
change from 2.82 (PAN) to 6.50 (pre-carbonization), and the loss tangents increase from 0.007
(lossless) to 0.089 (lossy). This study provides a simple and effective method for characterizing carbon
fibers’ processing status and can be applied to the measurement of other fibrous materials.

Carbon fiber, an advanced composite material, features lightweight, low thermal expansion, high stiffness, high
tensile strength, high-temperature tolerance, and high chemical resistance. Carbon fibers have numerous appli-
cations, such as aerospace, automotive, wind turbine, and sports ­equipment1,2. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) is a
commonly used raw material, also known as a precursor, to fabricate high-quality carbon fibers with high ten-
sile strength and modulus. The precursor, i.e., PAN, is heated to approximately 200–300 °C in the air to break
the hydrogen bonds and oxidize the original chain texture, called the oxidization. The oxidized fibers are then
heated to a higher temperature, which drives off the non-carbon atoms like oxygen and nitrogen during the pre-
carbonization and post-carbonization stages. The carbonized fiber processes under an even higher temperature
and produces the ultra-high modulus carbon fiber (graphitization)3,4.
Many measurements are introduced to distinguish the properties of carbon fiber in different stages, such
as FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy), DSC (Differential Scanning Calorimeter), XRD (X-ray
Diffraction), and SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope)5–9. FTIR records the infrared absorbance spectrum of
samples and distinguishes the variety of chemical band structures. DSC measures the difference in the amount
of heating flow required between samples and reference, distinguishing the oxidation ­stage5. XRD detects the
proportion of crystalline structures of the samples and distinguishes the chemical structure transformation
­progress9,10. SEM scans the surface of samples, showing the sheath-core structure, which visualizes the structure
­transformation5,10. Besides, FTIR, DSC, and XRD measurements can also be used to estimate the aromaticity
index (AI%) for determining the degree of ­oxidization11. The existing measuring techniques are expensive and
time-consuming, and have to determine the fiber’s properties jointly. Here we proposed a new and efficient
approach by measuring fibrous materials’ dielectric properties as an auxiliary method.
Characterizing the dielectric properties can be classified into two types: non-resonant ­type12–22 and resonant
­type22–27. The former includes the transmission/reflection method and terahertz time-domain spectroscopy
(THz TDS)12–22. The advantages of the non-resonant type are broadband with relatively low sensitivity. For
the resonant type, the cavity perturbation method is the common choice for characterizing material’s complex
permittivity in a specific frequency interval. Still, it has a defect that lossy materials will cause significant errors
on measurement ­results23,24. Unfortunately, the lossless PAN fibers will turn into low-loss intermediates after the
oxidation, and become lossy fibers after the pre-carbonization. Therefore, the enhanced-field method (EFM)25,26,
together with a contour-mapping ­technique27, provides an accurate measurement of the complex permittivities

1
Department of Physics, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan. 2Department of Material Science and
Engineering, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan. *email: [email protected]

Scientific Reports | (2021) 11:17475 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96949-6 1

Vol.:(0123456789)
 www.nature.com/scientificreports/

Figure 1.  The measured reflection responses using EFM for Formosa Plastic in three stages: (a) PAN, (b)
oxidation, and (c) pre-carbonization; and Jing Gong in three stages: (d) PAN, (e) oxidation, and (f) pre-
carbonization. In each part, five different volumetric percentages from 20 to 60% are shown.

of fibrous materials. The proposed method can serve as a diagnostic method to determine the processing status
of the fibers by examining their dielectric properties.

Results
The dielectric properties of fibrous materials are challenging to measure because of the ultra-high aspect ratio (the
length divided by the diameter)28. To overcome this problem, we cut the fibrous materials into pieces of 2–3 mm
and cram them into a Teflon sample holder. The holder with fibrous materials inside is placed in a resonant cavity
using ­EFM25,26. The EFM employs a single-port cavity. The reflection can be measured using a vector network
analyzer (Anritsu, MS46122A). Figure 1 shows the measured reflections for three processing stages: PAN, oxi-
dation, and pre-carbonization. For each part, five volumetric percentages from 20 to 60% are measured. Below
the volumetric percentage of 20%, the fibers are not randomly scattered in Teflon holder, resulting in unwanted
experimental errors. Above 60%, cramming the fibers into the holder becomes extremely difficult. That’s why we
focus our attention on the volumetric percentages of 20–60%. The materials are obtained from two companies:
Formosa Plastic Corporation (shown in Fig. 1a–c) and Jing Gong Co., Ltd. (shown in Fig. 1d–f).
As shown in Fig. 1, the resonant frequencies are inversely proportional to the volumetric concentrations. The
FWHMs (full width at half maximum) of all reflected signals become border and border, which indicates that the
quality factors (Q-factors) are also inversely proportional to the volumetric concentrations. Note that although
the network analyzer (MS46112A) is low-cost, its frequency resolution is 1 Hz with the stability of ± 1 ppm. The
network analyzer allows us to determine the resonant frequencies and the quality factors accurately. The major
challenge is to cram the fibrous materials into the Teflon holder.
Figure 2 plots the resonant frequencies and the quality factors as functions of the volumetric concentra-
tions for three processing stages: PAN, oxidation, and pre-carbonization, each with two suppliers. We can then
extrapolate the resonant frequencies and the quality factors at 100% volumetric concentrations based on the
observed linear trend. The effective medium method (extrapolated method) will be employed to determine the
dielectric constants and loss tangents of carbon fibers with 100% volumetric percentage in different stages. The
relations of resonant frequencies and volumetric percentages are plotted as Fig. 2a. The resonant frequencies are
inversely proportional to volumetric percentages. But the relations between Q-factors and volumetric percentages
are not simple. The relations of the reciprocals of Q-factors and volumetric percentages are plotted as Fig. 2b. The
reciprocals of Q-factors are proportional to the volumetric percentages. Note that the reciprocal of a Q-factor is
related to the loss tangents of the materials under test.
Table 1 shows the resonant frequencies and Q-factors of carbon fibers at the full volume for the PAN, oxida-
tion, and pre-carbonization stages using the effective medium method. The vector network analyzer (MS46112A)
can determine the resonant frequencies and the quality factors for each sample, accurately. The resonant fre-
quency of PAN is higher than those of oxidation and pre-oxidation. Also, the Q-factor of PAN is higher than
those of oxidation and pre-oxidation. Despite the quantitative difference in values, the samples from both com-
panies exhibit the same trend. With the measured resonant frequencies and the Q-factors, we can then extract
the complex permittivity.
The effective medium method suggests that the linear extrapolation should help us to find the resonant
frequencies and Q-factors at 100% volumetric percentage. The fitted curve will be y = mx + b , where y repre-
sents the resonant frequencies or the Q-factors, x is the volumetric percentage. m and b are the slope and the y

Scientific Reports | (2021) 11:17475 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96949-6 2

Vol:.(1234567890)
www.nature.com/scientificreports/

Figure 2.  (a) Resonant frequencies and (b) reciprocals of Q-factors as functions of the volumetric percentages.
The fibers at three stages from two companies are measured. The resonant frequencies are inversely proportional
to the volumetric percentages, while the reciprocals of Q-factors are proportional to the volumetric percentages.

PAN Oxidation Pre-carbonization

Freq. (GHz) Q-factor Freq. (GHz) Q-factor Freq. (GHz) Q-factor
Formosa Plastic 2.411 ± 0.001 910 ± 32 2.348 ± 0.009 153 ± 9 2.325 ± 0.014 115 ± 5
Jing Gong 2.427 ± 0.005 611 ± 35 2.381 ± 0.012 161 ± 7 2.351 ± 0.006 108 ± 5

Table 1.  The extrapolated resonant frequencies and Q-factors of two brands with 100% volumetric
percentages in the three stages: PAN, oxidation, and pre-carbonization.

-intercept. Due to the measuring uncertainty, there will be the mean squared error (MSE). The mean squared
error will give rise to the errors of the regression parameters, i.e., m and b , which will then contribute to the
worst errors
√ of y when x = 1 . According to the propagation of error for a linear model, the extrapolated errors,
�y = ±( �m2 + �b2 ) , are listed in Table 1. The deviations of the resonant frequencies are relatively small as
expected, but the errors of the Q-factors are non-negligible which will influence the accuracy of the imaginary
permittivity as discussed below.
The real and imaginary parts of the complex permittivity ( ε = ε ′ + iε′′ ) are coupled through the Kram-
ers–Kronig relations. The resonant frequency and the quality factor will be functions of the real part and the
imaginary part of the permittivity, i.e.,
fr = fr (ε′ , ε′′ ), (1)

Q = Q(ε′ , ε′′ ). (2)

For lossless materials, ε′ and ε′′ can be determined ­independently25,26. The real part of the complex permittivity
is related to the resonant frequency, it reads ε′ = ε′ (fr ) . But for the imaginary permittivity ε′′ , it still depends on
both fr and Q . Since fr helps us determine the real permittivity, we can express ε′′ = ε′′ (Q, ε′ ) . However, for lossy
materials, ε′ and ε′′ are closely coupled, the contour mapping technique is introduced to find the correctv­ alues27.
The real permittivity is commonly normalized and expressed as the relative dielectric constant ( εr =ε′ ε0 ). For
the expression of the imaginary permittivity, it is normally denoted as the loss tangent ( tan δ = ε′′ ε′ ). Equa-
tions (1) and (2) can be rewritten as:
fr = fr (εr , tanδ), (3)

Q = Q(εr , tanδ). (4)

The HFSS (High-Frequency Structure Simulator, ANSYS Inc.) provides reliable simulation results at micro-
wave frequency. By changing the input parameters εr and tan δ of the proposed cavity. A contour map is plotted
in Fig. 3. Figure 3 verifies our understanding that for low-loss materials ( tan δ < 0.01 ), the resonant frequency
depends merely on the real permittivity, fr = fr (ε′ ) or ε′ = ε′ (fr ).
The measured resonant frequency fr and quality factor Q in Table 1 can be used to find the corresponding
εr = ε′ ε0 and tan δ = ε′′ ε′ . For example, the resonant frequency and Q-factor of the PAN stage for Formosa
Plastic are 2.411 GHz and 910. By mapping the contour lines of fr and Q , we obtain an intersection point at
εr = 3.19 and tan δ = 0.007 . The corresponding material’s properties ( εr  , tan δ ) obtained from the measured
data set ( fr , Q ) are marked in Fig. 3 and listed in Table 2.
Table 2 shows that the relative dielectric constant ( εr ) and the corresponding loss tangent ( tan δ ) increase
as the processing temperature rises. For both companies (Formosa Plastic and Jing Gong), the PANs have the
lowest dielectric constant and loss tangent, while the pre-carbonization fibers have the highest values. The loss

Scientific Reports | (2021) 11:17475 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96949-6 3

Vol.:(0123456789)
 www.nature.com/scientificreports/

Figure 3.  The contour map determines the relative dielectric constant and the loss tangent. Two categories of
isolines are obtained from HFSS simulation. Iso-resonant frequency lines and iso-Q-factor lines are plotted with
dashed lines. From the measured data as shown in Table 1, we can uniquely determine the relative dielectric
constant and the loss tangent as marked in the figure and listed in Table 2.

PAN Oxidation Pre-carbonization

Dielectric const. Loss tangent Dielectric const. Loss tangent Dielectric const. Loss tangent
Formosa Plastic 3.19 ± 0.001 0.007 ± 0.0002 5.33 ± 0.019 0.062 ± 0.0035 6.50 ± 0.038 0.089 ± 0.0042
Jing Gong 2.82 ± 0.006 0.012 ± 0.0007 4.04 ± 0.021 0.056 ± 0.0024 5.23 ± 0.014 0.089 ± 0.0044

Table 2.  The measured dielectric constants and loss tangent for the two brands at 100% volumetric percentage
for three stages: PAN, oxidation, and pre-carbonization.

tangent is generally related to the color of the material. A white or light yellow material is not a good microwave
absorber with low tan δ , while a brown or black one is usually a good microwave absorber with high tan δ . Besides,
the fibers shrink in size as the processing temperature rises, indicating that the densities of fibers increase. The
increasing dielectric constant seems to be related to the increasing density. However, the increasing density is
unable to explain the changes of the loss tangent. As the processing temperature increases, the fibers go through
severe chemical reactions, not just physical densification.
The complex permittivities of the fibers from the two companies have distinct values, but, interestingly, they
have a similar trend. The better the carbonization, the higher the εr and tan δ . In other words, characterizing
the εr and tan δ helps to evaluate the carbonization status of a PAN fiber. Note that the proposed approach is an
auxiliary method, at least for now. It should be used together with other diagnostic techniques, such as FTIR,
DSC, Raman spectrum, SEM, and XRD.

Discussions
Conductivity effect.  The PAN is a dielectric material with extremely low electric conductivity, but the final
product, i.e., the carbon fiber, is a good conductor under direct current (DC). This indicates that the conductivity
of a carbonized fiber changes from extremely low (insulator) to high (conductor) during the processing s­ tages10.
It is essential to know the applicability of the proposed dielectric characterizing method.
The generalized dielectric constant contributes from the bound charges and the free charges, as shown below.
e2  Nfj e2 Nf0
ε(ω) = 1 + 2 2
+i , (5)
m (ωj − ω − iωγj ) mω(γ0 − iω)
j(bound)

where Nfj is the number of bound electrons of the j-th kind per unit volume and Nf0 is the number of free
electrons per unit volume. ω is the driving frequency of the wave. ωj and γj are the natural resonant frequency
and the collision frequency of the j-th kind bound electrons, respectively. For free electrons, ω0 = 0 and γ0 is
much greater than ω . For an ideal insulator like PAN, the contribution from the free electrons is zero because

Scientific Reports | (2021) 11:17475 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96949-6 4

Vol:.(1234567890)
www.nature.com/scientificreports/

Figure 4.  Experimental setup of the enhanced-field method (EFM). (a) The fiber is crammed randomly into a
Teflon sample holder. (b) The sample holder is then placed in the specially designed EFM cavity at a frequency
around 2.45 GHz. (c) The one-port system is connected to a network analyzer to measure the frequency
response of the reflectivity.

Nf0 = 0 . The second term of Eq. (5) can be omitted. Therefore, the complex dielectric constant of an insulator
is ε = εb′ + iεb′′ , which considers the contribution of the bound charges only.
When the number density of the free electrons is non-zero, i.e., Nf0 = 0 , Eq. (5) can be rewritten as:
σ
ε(ω) = εb′ + iεb′′ + i , (6)
ω
where σ = e2 Nf0 mγ0 with the condition γ0 ≫ ω . Equation (6) tells that,


εb′
εr = , (7)
ε0

σ
εb′′ + ω
tan δ = . (8)
εb′
The conductivity of the carbonized fiber ranges from 0.1 to 1000 Siemens/m1,2,10. The resonant frequency
is around 2.45 GHz and the angular frequency ω = 1.54 × 1010 rad/s . Even though at the case of the optimal
conductivity, i.e., σ = 1000 S/m , we still have
σ
εb′′ ≫ . (9)
ω
The conductivities at the early stages of the fabrication process, i.e., PAN, oxidation, and pre-carbonization, are
low. It is fair and reasonable to claim that the contribution from the conductivity is negligible, which warrants the
applicability of the proposed method. However, the authors admit that whether the proposed method is applica-
ble to the carbonization/graphitization fibers is still under investigation, which is beyond the scope of this work.
It is worth noting that comparing with the dielectric constant measured in Ref.29, our measured dielectric
constant is much smaller than theirs. The reason is that the fibers under study are anisotropic, and they measured
the axial dielectric properties of the carbon fiber. Our measured fibers are much shorter and randomly orientated.
In other words, our measurement provides an averaged dielectric properties of fibrous material and can be used
to characterize the carbonization status.

Method
Enhanced‑field method (EFM).  The enhanced-electric field provides a stronger coupling with the dielec-
tric properties of the specimens, resulting in a better resolution in characterization than that of the conventional
perturbation ­method25–27. The specimens to be measured are PAN, oxidized, and pre-carbonized fibers. All of
them are provided by two companies: Formosa Plastic Corporation and Jing Gong Co., Ltd. The fibers are cut

diameter of the Teflon holder is ϕ 22.00 mm with a height of 9.00 mm. The inner diameter of the holder is ϕ
into small pieces of 2–3 mm, randomly packed, and crammed into a Teflon holder, as shown in Fig. 4a. The outer

14.00 mm with a height of 7.00 mm. The capacity of the holder is 1.078 ­cm3. The Teflon holder is placed at the
center of the cavity (Fig. 4b) and measured the frequency response with a vector network analyzer (VNA) in a
range from 2.35 GHz to 2.6 GHz. The resonant frequency and quality factor can be derived from the measured
frequency response (Fig. 4c).
The samples to be measured are fibrous with an extremely high aspect ratio. The traditional permittivity meas-
urements require a sample with a fixed/specific shape. Here we solve the problem by cramming the fibers into
the Teflon sample holder. The diameter of the fiber is around 5–10 μm. The free space wavelength of 2.45 GHz
is 12 cm. Since the wavelength is several orders higher than the diameter of the fibers, the nonuniformity in the

Scientific Reports | (2021) 11:17475 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96949-6 5

Vol.:(0123456789)
 www.nature.com/scientificreports/

Figure 5.  The densities of the fibers for three stages: PAN, oxidation, and pre-carbonization. The materials
under test are obtained from Formosa Plastic Corporation (FP, red symbols) and Jing Gong Co., Ltd. (JG, blue
symbols).

sheath and core regions is averaged. In other words, the proposed technique is unable to resolve the sheath-core
problem. Besides, the length of the fibers is around 2 mm, and the fibers are randomly packed in three dimen-
sions. This warrants an averaged effect. The proposed technique is advantageous to samples with amorphous or
non-fixed shapes, like liquids, flakes, and powders.

Density of the fibers.  Evaluating the volumes of powders or fibrous materials is challenging, as compared
with the measurement of the volumes of solid or liquid  samples. The volume ( V  ) of a fibrous sample is associ-
ated with the mass ( m ) and the density ( ρ ), i.e., V = m ρ . The fibers are lightweight materials. They must be
weighted with a precision balance. The density of fibrous materials is difficult to obtain in that the radii and
lengths of the fibers vary greatly. Archimedes’ principle is employed to evaluate the densities of the fibers. During
the density measurement, the air bubbles should be completely removed. The measured densities are displayed
in Fig. 5. The radii and lengths of the fibers shrink as the processing temperature increases. Because of the den-
sification effect, the densities of the fibers will increase with the processing temperature. Once again, the samples
obtained from two companies are displayed side-by-side. Their trend is quite similar, with minor differences in
values. The measured values agree well with our expectations and can be used to calculate the samples’ volumet-
ric concentrations.

Received: 21 February 2021; Accepted: 10 August 2021

References
1. Donnet, J. B. & Bansal, R. C. Carbon Fibers (Marcel Dekker Inc, 1990).
2. Morgan, P. Carbon Fibers and Their Composites (Taylor & Francis, 2005).
3. Kinoshita, K. Carbon: Electrochemical and Physicochemical Properties (Wiley, 1998).
4. Frank, E., Hermanutz, F. & Buchmeiser, M. R. Carbon fibers: Precursors, manufacturing, and properties. Macromol. Mater. Eng.
297, 493–501 (2012).
5. Wangxi, Z., Jie, L. & Gang, W. Evolution of structure and properties of PAN precursors during their conversion to carbon fibers.
Carbon 41, 2805–2812. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1016/​S0008-​6223(03)​00391-9 (2003).
6. Mathur, R. B., Bahl, O. P. & Mittal, J. A new approach to thermal stabilization. Carbon 30, 657–663. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1016/​0008-​
6223(92)​90185-Y (1992).
7. Cetiner, S. et al. Polymerization of pyrrole derivatives on polyacrylonitrile matrix, FTIR–ATR and dielectric spectroscopic char-
acterization of composite thin films. Synth. Metals 160, 1189–1196. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1016/j.​synth​met.​2010.​03.​007 (2010).
8. Tadaaki, H. & Osamu, N. Formation of thin polyacrylonitrile films and their electrical properties. Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 7, 112 (1968).
9. Ko, T. H., Day, T. C., Perng, J. A. & Lin, M. F. The characterization of PAN-based carbon fibers developed by two-stage continuous
carbonization. Carbon 31, 765–771. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1016/​0008-​6223(93)​90013-Z (1993).
10. Panapoy, M., Dankeaw, A. & Ksapabutr, B. Electrical conductivity of PAN-based carbon nanofibers prepared by electrospinning
method. Thammasat Int. J. Sci. Technol. 13, 11–17 (2008).
11. Qiao, M. et al. Study on the changes of structures and properties of PAN fibers during the cyclic reaction in supercritical carbon
dioxide. Polymers 11(3), 402. https://​doi.​org/​10.​3390/​polym​11030​402 (2019).
12. Lagarkov, A. N., Matytsin, S. M., Rozanov, K. N. & Sarychev, A. K. Dielectric properties of fiber-filled composites. J. Appl. Phys.
84, 3806. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1063/1.​368559 (1998).
13. Ursache, S., Ciobanu, R. C., Olariu, M. & Neamtu, A. Dielectric properties and electromagnetic behaviour of Pan/Nmpy conductive
composites. Int. J. Inf. Electron. Eng. 3, 428–431. https://​doi.​org/​10.​7763/​IJIEE.​2013.​V3.​350 (2013).
14. Gupta, A. K., Chand, N., Singh, R. & Mansingh, A. Dielectric study of polyacrylonitrile, poly-2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate and
their copolymers. Eur. Polymer J. 15, 129–136 (1979).
15. Khan, W. S., Asmatulu, R. & Eltabey, M. M. Dielectric properties of electrospun PVP and PAN nanocomposite fibers at various
temperatures. J. Nanotechnol. Eng. Med. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1115/1.​40025​33 (2010).
16. Sareni, B., Krähenbühl, L., Beroual, A. & Brosseau, C. Effective dielectric constant of random composite material. J. Appl. Phys.
81, 2375–2383. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1063/1.​364276 (1997).
17. Balzano, A., De Rosa, I. M., Sarasini, F. & Sarto, M. S. Effective properties of carbon fiber composites: EM modeling versus experi-
mental testing. IEEE Int. Symp. Electromagn. Compatib. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1109/​ISEMC.​2007.​211 (2007).
18. Jacquemin, J. L., Ardalan, A. & Bordure, G. Electrical conductivity and dielectric constant of heat-treated polyacrylonitrile in an
AC regime. J. Non-Cryst. Solids 18, 249–257. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1016/​0022-​3093(78)​90011-X (1978).

Scientific Reports | (2021) 11:17475 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96949-6 6

Vol:.(1234567890)
www.nature.com/scientificreports/

19. Elimat, Z., Hussain, W. & Zihlif, A. PAN-based carbon fibers/PMMA composites: Thermal, dielectric, and DC electrical properties.
J. Mater. Sci. Mater. Electron. 23, 2117–2122. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1007/​s10854-​012-​0712-y (2012).
20. Paulauskas, F. L. & White, T. L. Temperature-dependent dielectric measurements of polyacrylonitrile fibers during air oxidation.
Preprint at https://​ieeex​plore.​ieee.​org/​docum​ent/​43057​91 (2004).
21. Chen, L. F., Ong, C. K., Neo, C. P., Varadan, V. V. & Varadan, V. K. Microwave Electronics: Measurement and Materials Characteriza-
tion (Wiley, 2004).
22. Su, S. C. & Chang, T. H. Manipulating the permittivities and permeabilities of epoxy/silver nanocomposites over a wide bandwidth.
Appl. Phys. Lett. 116, 202904 (2020).
23. Cohn, S. B. & Kelly, K. C. Microwave measurement of high-dielectric-constant materials. IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Techn. 14(9),
406–410 (1966).
24. Chao, H. W. & Chang, T. H. A modified calibration method for complex permittivity measurement. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 84, 084704
(2013).
25. Chao, H. W., Wong, W. S. & Chang, T. H. Characterizing the complex permittivity of high-κ dielectrics using enhanced field
method. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 86, 114701 (2015).
26. Chao, H. W. & Chang, T. H. Wide-range permittivity measurement with a parametric-dependent cavity. IEEE Trans. Microw.
Theory Tech. 66, 4641–4648 (2018).
27. Chao, H. W. & Chang, T. H. Characterization of the lossy dielectric materials using contour mapping. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 89, 104705
(2018).
28. Yoo, D. Y., Kim, S., Park, G. J., Park, J. J. & Kim, S. W. Effects of fiber shape, aspect ratio, and volume fraction on flexural behavior
of ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced cement composites. Compos. Struct. 174, 375–388. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1016/j.​comps​
truct.​2017.​04.​069 (2017).
29. Hong, W., Xiao, P., Luo, H. & Li, Z. Microwave axial dielectric properties of carbon fiber. Sci. Rep. 5, 14927. https://​doi.​org/​10.​
1038/​srep1​4927 (2015).

Acknowledgements
This work is supported in part by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), Taiwan, under contract No.
107-2112-M-007-015-MY3 and in part from Unitech Company (UHT), Taiwan. The authors are grateful to the
Taiwan Branch of ANSYS Inc. for the technical support.

Author contributions
H.W. and T.H. conceived the experiment. H.W., H.C. and Y.R. conducted the experiment and analyzed the results.
T.H. provided a theoretical model and supervised the study. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

Competing interests 
The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information
Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to T.-H.C.
Reprints and permissions information is available at www.nature.com/reprints.
Publisher’s note  Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
institutional affiliations.
Open Access  This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or
format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the
Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this
article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the
material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not
permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from
the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://​creat​iveco​mmons.​org/​licen​ses/​by/4.​0/.

© The Author(s) 2021

Scientific Reports | (2021) 11:17475 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96949-6 7

Vol.:(0123456789)