Ahmadi, Masoud;
Saxena, Prashant;
(2025)
Analytical modeling of the electrical conductivity of CNT-filled polymer nanocomposites.
Mathematics and Mechanics of Solids
, 30
(2)
pp. 428-449.
10.1177/10812865231225483.
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Abstract
Electrical conductivity of most polymeric insulators can be drastically enhanced by introducing a small volume fraction (∼ 1%) of conductive nanofillers. These nanocomposites find wide-ranging engineering applications from cellular metamaterials to strain sensors. In this work, we present a mathematical model to predict the effective electrical conductivity of carbon nanotubes (CNTs)/polymer nanocomposites accounting for the conductivity, dimensions, volume fraction, and alignment of the CNTs. Eshelby’s classical equivalent inclusion method (EIM) is generalized to account for electron-hopping—a key mechanism of electron transport across CNTs, and is validated with experimental data. Two measurements, namely, the limit angle of filler orientation and the probability distribution function, are used to control the alignment of CNTs within the composites. Our simulations show that decreasing the angle from a uniformly random distribution to a fully aligned state significantly reduces the transverse electrical conductivity, while the longitudinal conductivity shows less sensitivity to angle variation. Moreover, it is observed that distributing CNTs with non-uniform probability distribution functions results in an increase in longitudinal conductivity and a decrease in transverse conductivity, with these differences becoming more pronounced as the volume fraction of CNTs is increased. A reduction in CNT length decreases the effective electrical conductivity due to the reduced number of available conductive pathways while reducing CNT diameter increases the conductivity.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Analytical modeling of the electrical conductivity of CNT-filled polymer nanocomposites |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1177/10812865231225483 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1177/10812865231225483 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author(s) 2024. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). |
| Keywords: | Electrical conductivity, polymer nanocomposites, carbon nanotubes, equivalent inclusion method, CNT-filled polymer |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Mathematics |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10204581 |
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