Effect of interfacial properties of filled carbon black nanoparticles on the conductivity of nanocomposite

In this study, an optimized model is proposed for predicting the effective conductivity of nanocomposites, which contains conductive spherical fillers above the percolation threshold. The influence of filler properties, interphase regions, filler concentrations, elemental cell sizes as well as contact area on the effective conductivity of nanocomposites was investigated and discussed in detail. The developed model is verified by using the experimental data reported in the literatures, and it is found that the prediction results are fitted well with the experimental results at different particle concentrations. In addition, high levels of filler conductivity, particle concentration, and elemental cell size led to a good conductivity. The maximum conductivity of nanocomposite with sigma(eff) = 1,500,000 S/m, V-f = 0.07, r = 10(-4) nm, and D = 1250 nm is obtained at R-i = 40 nm and d = 10 nm. Furthermore, the conductivity of nanocomposite is not sensitive to interphase thickness, when d is larger than 25 nm.