A metal–polymer composite with unusual properties

By D. Bloor, K. Donnelly, P. Hands, P. Laughlin, David Lussey. 2005

235 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Electrically conductive composites that contain conductive filler dispersed in an insulating polymer matrix are usually prepared by the vigorous mixing of the components. This affects the structure of the filler particles and thereby the properties of the composite. It is shown that by careful mixing nano-scale features on the surface of the filler particles can be retained. The fillers used possess sharp surface protrusions similar to the tips used in scanning tunnelling microscopy. The electric field strength at these tips is very large and results in field assisted (Fowler–Nordheim) tunnelling. In addition the polymer matrix intimately coats the filler particles and the particles do not come into direct physical contact. This prevents the formation of chains of filler particles in close contact as the filler content increases. In consequence the composite has an extremely high resistance even at filler loadings above the expected percolation threshold. The retention of filler particle morphology and the presence of an insulating polymer layer between them endow the composite with a number of unusual properties. These are presented here together with appropriate physical models.

Subfields: Biomedical Engineering, Materials Chemistry

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/087e3d0ff104a45cd8ae0b0c21703b37cf4450d2

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In Biomedical Engineering

Citations in the corpus

Biomimetic Tactile Sensor Array (2008, background): “Conductive particles [12] suspended in elastomers can result in elastic materials whose resistivity changes with deformation.”
Overview of bacterial cellulose composites: a multipurpose advanced material. (2013, background): “Reinforcing materials of a different nature such as solid clay particles, metallic oxides, carbonates and fibrous materials have not only strengthened polymers, but also introduced various biological features to polymeric composites (Bloor et al., 2005; Islam et al., 2011; Maneerung et al., 2007; Qi”
Flexible Tactile Sensing Based on Piezoresistive Composites: A Review (2014, methodology): “Several scientific works [63,64,82,98,100] have also reported on the use of different metal micro- and nano-particles showing nanostructured spiky tips as fillers in tunnelling conduction composites.”
Smart fabric sensors and e-textile technologies: a review (2014, background): “QTC composites change resistive properties when exposed to hexane vapor and tetrahydrofuran vapor at approximate rates of 100 k min−1 and 10 k min−1 respectively [114].”