Electrical conductivities of carbon powder nanofillers and their latex-based polymer composites

The electrical conductivity of graphene, multi-wall carbon nanotubes, carbon black nanopowders and graphite powder is characterized using paper-like films and by means of powder compression. For the graphene and nanotube nanopowders, maximum macroscopic conductivity can be obtained by filtering well dispersed water/filler solutions into a dense and well-oriented paper like structure. The results are compared with the percolation threshold and fmal conductivity of polypropylene (PP) composites, using latex technology for the incorporation of the carbon fillers in the polymer. PP composites produced in this work showed well-dispersed fillers inside the polymer, with percolation thresholds as low as 0.3 wt.%. The fmal conductivity for all the composites is below 1.5 S/m, not reaching the high value of 103 S/m, which are obtained for graphene-and nanotube-based paper films or graphite compacts.