Conductive polymers with very low temperature coefficient of resistivity

Abstract

Polymers with high dark conductivity obtained by specific synthesis and doping or by mixing with conducting fillers/necessary concentration of additives >20%/ exhibit deterioration of typical polymeric properties. A new method of making commercial polymers conductive by the addition of as little as 1 wt% of a conductive material has recently been elaborated.[1]. This method takes advantage of the fact that well conducting organic charge-transfer /CT/ complexes, the so called “organic metals”, are able to crystallize in the polymer matrix during film casting. The process consists in growing conductive CT complexes in correlated, somehow alligned crystallites forming a conducting network at such low additive content. This method is called reticulate doping. Our papers [1,2,3] describe the mechanism of the network formation, the conditions under which it can be formed, and the relationship between the morphology of the CT complex crystallites and the properties of the obtained materials. In the present communication another interesting property is discussed — an unusual temperature dependence of the electrical conductivity in reticulate doped polymers.