pps proceeding - Abstract Preview
pps proceeding
Symposium: S06 - Nanocomposites
Oral Presentation
 
 

Construction of conductive networks through segregated structure in conductive polymer composites

Zhang Shungmei (1)*, Deng Hua (1), Zhang Qin (1), Fu Qiang (1)

(1) College of Polymer Science and Engineering, Sichuan University - Sichuan - China

Conductive polymer composites (CPCs) have generated large amount of interest due to their wide range of applications and ease of fabrication. It has been demonstrated that morphological control of conductive network is crucial for their final electrical properties [1]. The construction of segregated network has been widely used to form conductive networks with segregated structure. It is often realized by using latex particles or polymer blends, where fillers are located on the interface between polymer particles or domains. The polymer particle size of such structure is thought as very important as the amount of interface is dependent on such a parameter. Nevertheless, this issue has barely been investigated [2]. Herein, we aim to study the effect of using relative large polymer particle size on the percolation behavior of CPCs based on PP/PE blends. Multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were firstly dispersed in PE, and then PE/MWNTs were compounded with PP well below the melting temperature of PP to keep the particle size of original PP pellets (or powder). It is observed that the percolation threshold decreases with increasing particle size (size 3.6mm, Pc=0.044wt%), which agrees with previous theoretical prediction and experiment in much smaller particle size range. To further study this, the amount of MWNTs in PE is varied. It is shown the degree of PE/MWNTs coating on PP particles varies with MWNTs as well as PE content in the blends, and have significant influence on the final electrical property. A model combines the class percolation theory and model for segregated network from Turner et al. [3] has been proposed to study the effect of particle size, degree of coating and thickness of coating on the percolation behavior of these CPCs. Excellent agreement has been observed between experimental observations and theoretical modeling. 1 Deng et al.Prog.in Poly.Sci.,Inpress,2013 2 Grunlan et al. J Poly. Sci. B, 2011 3 Turner et al., J Appl. Phys. 1971