Honeycomb network structure constructed by silver nanoparticles achieving negative permittivity at low percolation threshold

Abstract

Continuous conductive network is associated with the percolation effect, yet the method of fabricating network structure at low content is still a challenge. Herein, this work proposed a “honeycomb” structure via hot pressing to realize weak negative permittivity at low percolation threshold. By polydopamine (PDA) self-polymerization and silver mirror reaction plating, Ag nanoparticles coated polystyrene (PS) microsphere (PS@PDA@Ag) was prepared. Through hot pressing, the microspheres were compressed into “honeycomb”. The percolation threshold was reduced because the thin silver layer oscillated at low frequency plasma. Besides, by controlling the slivering time, weak negative permittivity in the range of −139 to −95 was observed and the percolation threshold was merely 2.23 vol%. The ac conductivity increased by four orders of magnitude and the thermal conductivity enhanced 79.08 %. The electric field and power loss density were simulated by finite element method. More than 100 V/m of electric field mode and 3 × 1011 W/m3 of power loss density were presented, explaining the generation of negative permittivity and the enhancement of dielectric loss. This work presented a method of achieving weak negative dielectric via honeycomb structure, and provided a novel perspective for the development of metal-based metacomposites.