Continuum percolation of polydisperse nanofillers.
We show that a generalized connectedness percolation theory can be made tractable for a large class of anisotropic particle mixtures that potentially contain an infinite number of components. By applying our methodology to carbon-nanotube composites, we explain the huge variations found in the onset of electrical conduction in terms of a percolation threshold that turns out to be sensitive to polydispersity in particle length and diameter. The theory also allows us to model the influence of the presence of nonconductive species in the mixture, such as is the case for single-walled nanotubes, showing that these raise the percolation threshold proportionally to their abundance.
Otten
Ronald H J
RH
Theory of Polymers and Soft Matter and Eindhoven Polymer Laboratories, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands. r.h.j.otten@tue.nl
van der Schoot
Paul
P