Modeling electrical conductivity and tensile properties of conductive polymer composites (CPCs) based on percolation threshold theory - A short review

Abstract

Conductive polymer composite (CPCs) has the potential to be one the material that can be used in electronic interconnect applications. In recent years, it had attracted number of researchers to explore and understand the structure-properties of flexible CPCs conductivity and mechanical properties to suits their final applications. It is worth mentioning that for polymer to conduct electricity, the key aspect to tackle in CPCs is their percolation threshold. The percolation threshold is known as the point where material changes it properties from insulating to conductive. Hence, there are many models and theories widely published by other researchers within the area that can be used to predict electrical conductivity and tensile properties which are based on percolation threshold. In this paper, we briefly review several models namely classic percolation threshold and McLachlan for electrical conductivity; and Pukanszky and Ouali models for the mechanical percolation. The effect of particle size in percolation threshold was also reviewed in this paper. The primary aim for this paper is to establish the correlation between conductivity and mechanical properties in CPCs using the aforementioned models. This will enable researchers to understand the behavior and ultimately predict the performance of flexible CPCs for interconnect applications.