Conductive network formation of carbon nanotubes in elastic polymer microfibers and its effect on the electrical conductance: Experiment and simulation

Hyun Woo Cho, Sang Won Kim, Jeongmin Kim, Un Jeong Kim, Kyuhyun Im, Jong Jin Park, Bong June Sung

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

We investigate how the electrical conductance of microfibers (made of polymers and conductive nanofillers) decreases upon uniaxial deformation by performing both experiments and simulations. Even though various elastic conductors have been developed due to promising applications for deformable electronic devices, the mechanism at a molecular level for electrical conductance change has remained elusive. Previous studies proposed that the decrease in electrical conductance would result from changes in either distances or contact numbers between conductive fillers. In this work, we prepare microfibers of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs)/polyvinyl alcohol composites and investigate the electrical conductance and the orientation of SWCNTs upon uniaxial deformation. We also perform extensive Monte Carlo simulations, which reproduce experimental results for the relative decrease in conductance and the SWCNTs orientation. We investigate the electrical networks of SWCNTs in microfibers and find that the decrease in the electrical conductance upon uniaxial deformation should be attributed to a subtle change in the topological structure of the electrical network.

Original languageEnglish
Article number194903
JournalJournal of Chemical Physics
Volume144
Issue number19
DOIs
StatePublished - 21 May 2016

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