Electric field influence on the non-zero temperature resistance of carbon nanotube polymer nanocomposites with subbands effect

Abstract

The effective electrical resistivity of carbon nanotubes (CNT)-based polymer nanocomposites is studied using an analytical model based on the percolation theory. The CNTs are considered as rod-like conductors that are aligned or randomly dispersed in the polymer to transport electrons by tunneling. When assessing non-zero temperature electrical resistivity, the tunneling effect considers the thermally energized electron transmission that occurs between each coupled pair of CNTs by the electrical transport model. The modeling technique consists of three steps: identifying the percolating network from the primary formation of CNTs, initial prediction of resistivity by equivalent resistor network, computation of the displacements of CNTs for the resistance change. Taking into consideration the behavior of tunneling in the percolation transition zone, a good agreement is obtained between the model results and experimental data. The verified code is used to investigate the sensitivity for different orientation states, aspect ratios and mode numbers. The results reveal lower sensitivity for higher mode numbers as collateral with the influence of increasing randomness.