Artículos de revistas
Influence of carbon nanotube clustering on the electrical conductivity of polymer composite films
Autor
FRANCIS AVILES CETINA
Institución
Resumen
Electrical conductivity of 150–200 μm thick polysulfone films loaded with 0.05–0.75% w/w multiwall carbon
nanotubes was systematically investigated for two types of dispersion states, uniformly dispersed and agglomerated at the
micro-scale. The percolation threshold was found at 0.11% and 0.068% w/w for the uniformly dispersed and agglomerated
films, respectively. Overall, the conductivity of the films with agglomerated nanotubes was higher than that of the uniformly
dispersed ones, with marked differences of 2 to 4
orders of magnitude for carbon nanotubes loadings in the upper
vicinity of the percolation threshold (0.1–0.3% w/w). The increased conductivity of the agglomerated state is explained by
the increased nanotube-to-nanotube contact after the percolating network has formed, which facilitates electron transfer.