Modeling the electrical resistivity of polymer composites with segregated structures

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 10; no. 1; pp. 2537 - 11
• Main Authors: Park, Sung-Hoon, Hwang, Jinyoung, Park, Gyeong-Su, Ha, Ji-Hwan, Zhang, Minsu, Kim, Dongearn, Yun, Dong-Jin, Lee, Sangeui, Lee, Sang Hyun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 10.06.2019; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 140/133; 147/135; 147/143; 639/301/923; 639/4077/4079; Behavior; Carbon nanotubes; Cheese; Conductivity; Electrical conductivity; Electrical resistivity; Fillers; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hypotheses; Mechanical engineering; Modelling; Monte Carlo simulation; multidisciplinary; Percolation theory; Polymer matrix composites; Polymers; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Size effects
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-10514-4

Hybrid carbon nanotube composites with two different types of fillers have attracted considerable attention for various advantages. The incorporation of micro-scale secondary fillers creates an excluded volume that leads to the increase in the electrical conductivity. By contrast, nano-scale secondary fillers shows a conflicting behavior of the decreased electrical conductivity with micro-scale secondary fillers. Although several attempts have been made in theoretical modeling of secondary-filler composites, the knowledge about how the electrical conductivity depends on the dimension of secondary fillers was not fully understood. This work aims at comprehensive understanding of the size effect of secondary particulate fillers on the electrical conductivity, via the combination of Voronoi geometry induced from Swiss cheese models and the underlying percolation theory. This indicates a transition in the impact of the excluded volume, i.e., the adjustment of the electrical conductivity was measured in cooperation with loading of second fillers with different sizes. Carbon nanotube–polymer composites containing secondary fillers are thought to possess enhanced electrical and mechanical properties. Here the authors combine Monte Carlo calculations with resistivity experiments to study the effect of filler size and shape on electrical conductivity.