Simultaneous measurement of rheological and conductive properties of carbon black filled ethylene–tetrafluorothylene copolymer

Excerpt

Composites composed of carbon black (CB) filled polymers have been widely applied in many areas such as electromagnetic/radio-frequency interference shielding, electrostatic discharge, conductive adhesives for die attachment in electronic packaging applications, and electroactive polymeric sensors in hand prostheses [1, 2]. It is well known that the morphology and properties of filled polymer composites are greatly influenced by the state of filler dispersion [3]. Due to the small size and high specific surface, the filler particles are favorable to form a three-dimensional flocculation structure [4]. Even though scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations can give us a lot of information on structure and morphology involving fillers, they only reflect the dispersion localized within a two-dimensional microscopic site and thereby are easily misinterpreted with respect on the correlation of the information to the real dispersion space and its contribution to the target properties [5, 6]. …