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The relationship between exponent t in McLachlan equation and electronic percolation thresholds of solution cast films

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Abstract

To better understand the relationship between the exponent t in McLachlan's GEM equation and the percolation threshold of conductive polymer composites, in this work, a series of percolation threshold and exponent t pairs were obtained from the percolation curves of different carbon-based fillers utilizing the McLachlan equation. In particular, pairs derived perpendicular and in-plane to the films for binary composite films with carbon fiber of different aspect ratios (AR) as well as pairs derived perpendicular for ternary composite films with different polymer blends and different polymer blend ratios for both carbon black and carbon nanotubes filler were investigated. In these systems, the exponent t for all three fillers is different from the value of 2.0 often referred to as “universal”. Scanning electron microscopy was used to reveal the microscopic morphology of different shape fillers in the solution cast composite films. A schematic diagram was used to illustrate the differences in the conductive pathways formed by different conductive fillers.

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Acknowledgements

The author Muchao Qu thanks the financial support from the Guangdong Provincial Colleges and Universities Youth Innovative Talents Project (2021KQNCX046) and the Scientific and Technological Plan of Guangdong Province, China (No. 2019B090905005).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510632, China

    Huagen Xu

  2. Zhuhai Seine Printing Technology Co., Ltd, Zhuhai, 519075, China

    Huagen Xu, Baoquan Chen & Qiancheng Yang

  3. School of Automobile and Transportation Engineering, Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University, Guangzhou, 510450, China

    Muchao Qu

  4. Institute of Polymer Materials, Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Martensstr. 7, 91058, Erlangen, Germany

    Huagen Xu & Dirk W. Schubert

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  1. Huagen Xu
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  2. Muchao Qu
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  5. Dirk W. Schubert
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Correspondence to Huagen Xu.

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Xu, H., Qu, M., Chen, B. et al. The relationship between exponent t in McLachlan equation and electronic percolation thresholds of solution cast films. J Polym Res 29, 478 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-022-03330-w

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