Title: dielectric material
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - dielectric material
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.08790
Status: current

Definition
Material which polarizes when exposed to an external electric field, because it creates its own internal electric field oriented against the external field.

Notes
1) Dielectrics are divided into polar and nonpolar. The polar ones contain dipolar groups and their poling (polarization process) consists in the orientation of these dipoles by an external electric field. It is the so-called orientation polarization, which can but may not be complete due to competitive thermal motion. Poling of some polar dielectrics such as fluoropolymers gives materials with a stabilized polarized structure known as electrets. Poling of a non-polar dielectric is always temporary since it consists in displacements of electrons (electronic polarization) or ions in crystals (ionic polarization) giving induced dipoles that decay immediately after the removal of the field.
2) Dielectrics are key materials for the construction of capacitors.

Related Terms
- Poling: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/08857
- electrets: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/08795
- fluoropolymers: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/08810
- polarization density: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/08856

Source
- PAC, 2022, 94, 15. 'Glossary of terms relating to electronic, photonic and magnetic properties of polymers (IUPAC Recommendations 2021)' on page 23 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2020-0501)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08790/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08790/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08790/xml

Citation: Citation: 'dielectric material' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.08790
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Accessed: 2026-07-13T09:18:23+00:00