title: Design of electrical conductive composites: tuning the morphology to improve the electrical properties of graphene filled immiscible polymer blends.
abstract: Polystyrene (PS) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) blends filled with octadecylamine-functionalized graphene (GE-ODA) have been fabricated to obtain conductive composites with a lower electrical percolation threshold according to the concept of double percolation. The dependence of the electrical properties of the composites on the morphology is examined by changing the proportion of PS and PMMA. Our results reveal that the electrical conductivity of the composites can be optimal when PS and PMMA phases form a cocontinuous structure and GE-ODA nanosheets are selectively located and percolated in the PS phase. For the PS/PMMA blend (50w/50w), the composites exhibit an extremely low electrical percolation threshold (0.5 wt %) because of the formation of a perfect double percolated structure. Moreover, the rheological properties of the composites are also measured to gain a fundamental understanding of the relationship between microstructure and electrical properties.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130022, PR China.
authors.forename: Cui
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.forename: Yutian
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D000588:Amines / Q000737:chemistry; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D006108:Graphite / Q000737:chemistry*; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry; D019904:Polymethyl Methacrylate / Q000737:chemistry*; D011137:Polystyrenes / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D000588:Amines; D011137:Polystyrenes; D006108:Graphite; D019904:Polymethyl Methacrylate; C009317:stearylamine