Electric Modulus Analysis of Carbon Black/Copolymer Composite Materials

Abstract

We have investigated the electrical properties of carbon black (CB) loaded in ethylene butylacrylate copolymer com- posite (EBA) in the frequency range between 102 and 104 Hz and temperature range between 153 and 353 K. The fre- quency dependence of electrical data have been analyzed in two frameworks: the electrical modulus formalism with the Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts stretched exponential function (KWW) and the electrical conductivity by using the Jon- scher’s power law in the frequency domain. The stretching exponent βKWW and n are found to be temperature independent for all CB fractions and decreasing when the CB volume concentrations loaded in copolymer matrix increases. It is found that the activation energy obtained by the modulus method is in good agreement with that obtained by the DC conductivity in the power law which is independent on the CB contents that exist in the copolymer matrix, suggesting that these parti- cles do not interact significantly with the chain segments of the macromolecules in the EBA copolymer.