Electrical conductivity modeling and research of polypropylene composites filled with carbon black

Abstract

Composites of polypropylene filled with carbon black (PP/CB composite) at different concentrations were prepared by melt mixing followed by compression molding. The dependence of electrical resistance on the filler mass fraction was experimentally received. It was shown that the received dependence had the threshold character. The composite kept dielectric properties at the filler concentration below the threshold and at the concentration above the threshold the electrical resistance decreased more than on 8-10 orders. The theoretical description of electrical conductivity of the composite was offered. Experimental data of the dependence between electrical resistance and the filler mass fraction agreed with the theoretical. The process of conductivity in the PP/CB composite was simulated by means of the Monte-Carlo method for threshold mass fraction estimation.