THEORETICAL APPROACHES ON ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES OF PARTICLE REINFORCED COMPOSITE MATERIALS AS CANDIDATES FOR ALTERNATIVE INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS

Abstract

The paper summarizes a recent theoretical effort carried out with respect to the electrical properties (conductivity) of particle reinforced composite materials. The interdependence of electrical conductivity with crucial properties of polymer based encapsulates has been investigated analytically using different mixing laws and effective media theories. The filler particles (metal and non-metal) were considered as having spherical shapes and spread all over the composite’s matrix. The aimed property was plotted vs. the particle volume fraction of the fillers, all the models showing differences with respect to the basic model derived by Maxwell. In the dilute limit, all the expressions reduce to this classical model. With respect to the metallic particles, there are relatively small differences among the values obtained using one of the models, differences arising from the “variations” of the particle materials nature.