Characterization of Expanded Graphite/Flake-Type Graphite Filled Conductive Polymer Composites

Abstract:

Conductive polymer composites (CPCs) consisting of expanded graphite (EG), flake-type graphite (FG) and thermalsetting resin were fabricated by means of a preform molding technique. Conductive fillers, EG and FG, were mechanically mixed with the phenol resin to provide an electrical property to composites. The filler loadings were fixed at 75wt.% to obtain a high electrical conductivity. The mechanical and electrical properties of CPCs were optimized according to the weight ratio and the particle size of FG. As the weight ratio increased, the flexural strength increased, however, the electrical conductivity decreased for both cases of CPCs using different sizes of FG. The particle size was an important parameter to change the mechanical and electrical behaviors. The flexural strength was sensitive to the particle size due to the different level of densification. The electrical conductivity also showed size-dependent behavior because of the different contribution to the conductive networking.