Numerical Characterization for Electrical Conductivity of Two-Dimensional Nanocomposite Systems with Conducting Fiber Fillers.

Jungmin Lee,Sang Hyun Lee,Jinyoung Hwang,Yesol Yun

doi:10.3390/ma13102410

Jungmin Lee, Sang Hyun Lee + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13102410

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Journal: Materials	Publication Date: May 24, 2020
Citations: 2	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Korea Aerospace University, Korea University

Abstract

Hybrid nanotube composite systems with two different types of fillers attract considerable attention in several applications. The incorporation of secondary fillers exhibits conflicting behaviors of the electrical conductivity, which either increases or decreases according to the dimension of secondary fillers. This paper addresses quantitative models to predict the electrical performance in the configuration of two dimensional systems with one-dimensional secondary fillers. To characterize these properties, Monte Carlo simulations are conducted for percolating networks with a realistic model with the consideration of the resistance of conducting NWs, which conventional computational approaches mostly lack from the common assumption of zero-resistance or perfect conducting NWs. The simulation results with nonperfect conductor NWs are compared with the previous results of perfect conductors. The variation of the electrical conductivity reduces with the consideration of the resistance as compared to the cases with perfect conducting fillers, where the overall electrical conductivity solely originates from the contact resistance caused by tunneling effects between NWs. In addition, it is observed that the resistance associated with the case of invariant conductivity with respect to the dimension of the secondary fillers increases, resulting in the need for secondary fillers with the increased scale to achieve the same electrical performance. The results offer useful design guidelines for the use of a two-dimensional percolation network for flexible conducting electrodes.

Highlights

Conducting polymer composites have become essential components for various modern electronic applications including wearable sensors, flexible displays, batteries, and solar cells, etc. [1,2,3,4]
Since the percolation occurs in this configuration of the carbon nanotube (CNT) network, all NWs are included in Conducting networks
This nanocomposite system is nontrivial in that NWs which act as conducting paths which electrical current can flow through are overlaid in Swiss cheese model originally intended for the continuum percolation

Summary

Introduction

Conducting polymer composites have become essential components for various modern electronic applications including wearable sensors, flexible displays, batteries, and solar cells, etc. [1,2,3,4]. CNT-based composites have recently been studied for specific improved properties in those applications [5,6,7]. Percolation networks of one-dimensional nanowires (NWs) have been extensively studied for applications of flexible conducting polymers. Ultra-high aspect ratio one-dimensional fillers of highly conductive materials, such as carbon nanotube (CNT), gold (Au), silver (Ag), copper (Cu), and their alloys, are desired to achieve the outstanding structural and electrical performance at low coverage. Among those options, CNT-based polymer composites have been intensively investigated for very attractive options, in particular, of their extremely large aspect ratio and expanded surface area.

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