New Conductive Polymeric Composites

Abstract

A new method has recently been proposed of obtaining conductive polymeric materials. It consists in crystallizing a conductive charge-transfer complex during the process of polymer film casting. If the composition and casting conditions are chosen properly, a conductive material can be obtained at an additive content as low as 1 wt.%. The paper considers the influence of different parameters on the formation of a continuous conductive network of CT complex crystallites. It is shown that the casting temperature, the solvent used and the type of polymer matrix have considerable effect on the morphology of CT complex crystallites and consequently on the electrical conductivity of the samples. For each CT complex — polymer — solvent system there is an optimum temperature at which the quality of the conductive network is the best and the conductivity reaches its maximum value. Above and below this temperature the morphology changes and conductivity falls down abruptly.