Paper number 250

ESTIMATION OF ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY OF LCF-PP/PANI-COMPLEX BLENDS

R. Taipalus and K. Friedrich

Institute for Composite Materials Ltd.
Erwin-Schrödinger-Strasse 58, D-67663 Kaiserslautern
GERMANY

Summary The aim of this study is to model the electrical conductivity of long carbon fibre (LCF) reinforced polypropylene (PP) composites and their blends with an electrically conductive polyaniline-complex (PANI-complex). A Fibre Contact Model is used to describe the electrical conductivity and to model the synergy effect between the two conductive components. This structure-oriented theory also considers the microstructural parameters, such as fibre length, orientation and concentration. The studied PANI-complex network is supposed to originate from processing induced PANI-complex fibrils, which are characterised in their dimensions and orientation. The predicted data for LCF-PP and PP/PANI-complex blends are in good agreement with the experimental results. By using an "increased conductive pathways" method, it is possible to model the synergy effect between LCF and PANI-complex. In this method it is assumed that the LCFs build a backbone of conductivity and the PANI-complex forms additional conductive pathways between them. Again the predictions are in good agreement with the experimental data.
Keywords CFRP, electrical properties, modelling, synergy effect, PANI-complex.

Theme : Mechanical and Physical Properties ; Physical Properties

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