ABSTRACT
Electrical properties of materials are described by their behavior in the presence of an electric eld. Basically, the response of any material to an electric eld can be separated into two main parts: dielectric response and electrical conduction. Polymer-based materials with good conduction properties have been the subject of fundamental scientic interest due to their tremendous potential in various applications (Gul 1996). Even though most polymeric materials are not conductors of electricity, they are easy to fabricate into complex shapes at a reduced expense. In particular, thermoplastics are moldable or extrudable into various shapes and sizes (Thomas et al. 2015). Besides this, the specic weight of industrial standard
12.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 215 12.2 Fundamentals of Electrical Conductivity of Polymeric Materials ............... 216
12.2.1 Electrical Conduction in Polymers ................................................... 216 12.2.2 Single and Multiphase Conductive Polymer Materials .................... 219
12.3 Characterization Methodologies for Electrical Conductivity ....................... 222 12.3.1 Eddy Current Testing ........................................................................ 222 12.3.2 Two-Point Technique ........................................................................ 223 12.3.3 Four-Point Technique ........................................................................ 223 12.3.4 Van der Pauw Technique ..................................................................224
12.4 Electrically Conductive Single/Multiphase Systems ....................................225 12.4.1 Effect of Polymer Matrix Properties ................................................225 12.4.2 Effect of Filler Properties .................................................................226 12.4.3 Effect of Matrix-Filler Interactions ................................................. 227 12.4.4 Effect of Multiphase Morphology ....................................................228 12.4.5 Effect of Stability and Endurance .................................................... 229
12.5 Concluding Remarks and Future Perspectives ............................................. 229 References .............................................................................................................. 229
plastics is about one-third the specic weight of the corresponding metal materials. Hence, polymers that conduct electricity are in demand for various applications in which the conductivity of metal is not required. Macromolecular compounds can be formulated to have specic conductivity features (from very low to very high conductivity), making them desirable for various applications (Kim et al. 2004; Mao et al. 2012). If the level of electrical charge transfer is not enough, modications to the polymer must be made to increase conductivity. This has resulted in plastics that can be used in four distinct application categories of increasing conductivity:
