The positive temperature coefficient (PTC) effect in conductive polymer composites (CPC) are still poorly understood with the thermal expansion of the polymer matrix accepted as the main cause. This thesis aims to study a model system able to explain the effect of the filler size and shape on the PTC behaviour of CPCs. Silver coated glass spheres and flakes are used as conductive fillers due to the ease in controlling uniform size and shape. In a controlled system it was demonstrated that the PTC intensity increases with increasing filler size and with decreasing filler content, both for conductive fillers. Combinations of different conductive fillers were investigated to explore the possibility to obtain both low percolation thresholds and high PTC intensities. Model systems in which at least one of the two conductive fillers is of relatively homogenous size and shape were used to facilitate unravelling some of the complicated relationships between (mixed) conductive fillers and the PTC effect. The PTC intensity of mixed fillers composites were dominated by the filler with the lowest PTC intensity, even at very low volume fractions. The PTC intensity was not only influenced by the conductive particle size but also by its size distribution. The effect of difference in linear coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of conductive fillers and polymer matrix based on a change in filler core on PTC behaviour was investigated. Damage to the particles due to the poor adhesion between the silver coating and the PMMA bead lead to the composite behaving like mixed filler composite. Hybrid polymers filled with silver coated glass flakes was also examined in order to enhance the PTC intensity. The PTC intensity of the composite increased with increasing PPE content but the negative temperature coefficient (NTC) effect was observed in all the composites.

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The aim of this study was to improve electrical properties of conductive polymer composites. For this purpose, various studies were performed using different materials in this dissertation. In order to investigate the effect of alternative composite preparation methods on electrical conductivity, nylon 6/carbon black systems were prepared by both in-situ polymerization and melt-compounding techniques. When compared with melt compounding, in-situ polymerization method provided enhancement in electrical conductivity of nylon 6 composites. Furthermore, it was aimed to improve electrical conductivity of polymer composites by modifying surface chemistry of carbon black. 1 wt. % solutions of 3-Aminopropyltriethoxysilane and formamide were tried as chemical modifier, and treated carbon black was melt mixed with low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and nylon 6. According to electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA), chemicals used for surface treatment may have acted as doping agent and improved electrical conductivity of polymer composites more than untreated carbon black did. Formamide was more effective as dopant compared to the silane coupling agent. In order to investigate electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness and dielectric properties of conductive polymer composites, 1, 2 and 3 wt. % solutions of formamide were tried as chemical modifier and treated carbon black was melt mixed with poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET). Composites containing formamide treated carbon black exhibited enhancement in electrical conductivity, EMI shielding effectiveness and dielectric constant values compared to composites with untreated carbon black. In order to enhance electrical conductivity of polymer composites, the selective localization of conductive particles in multiphase polymeric materials was aimed. For this purpose, carbon nanotubes (CNT) were melt mixed with polypropylene (PP)/PET. Grinding, a type of solid state processing technique, was applied to PP/PET/CNT systems to reduce the average domain size of blend phases and to improve interfacial adhesion between these phases. Grinding technique exhibited improvement in electrical conductivity and mechanical properties of PP/PET/CNT systems at low PET compositions. To investigate application potential of conductive polymer composites, polyaniline (Pani)/carbon nanotubes (CNT) composites were synthesized and electrochemical capacitance performances of these systems, as electrode material in electrochemical capacitors, were studied. Polyaniline/carbon nanotubes composites resulted in a higher specific capacitance than that of the composite constituents. Pseudocapacitance behavior of Pani might contribute to the double layer capacitance behavior of nanotubes. Additionally, as an alternative to Pani/CNT systems, polyaniline films were deposited on treated current collectors and electrochemical capacitance performances of these electrode systems were investigated. The highest specific capacitance of polyaniline/carbon nanotubes composites was 20 F/g and this value increased to 35.5 F/g with polyaniline film deposited on treated current collector.

This work aims to investigate the vapor sensing behavior of conductive polymer composites (CPCs). In connection with the protection of the environment and human beings, sensing of different kinds of chemical vapors is of increasing importance. At the moment, four kinds of vapor sensors are widely investigated and reported, namely semiconducting metal oxide sensors (MO), conjugated polymer sensors, carbonaceous nanomaterial based sensors, and CPC based sensors. Due to their unique component systems, the different sensor types are based on different sensing mechanisms resulting in different potential application ranges. In consideration of cost and processability, CPC based vapor sensors are promising owning to their low cost, excellent processability, and designable compositions. In terms of vapor sensing behavior of CPC sensors, the interaction between the polymer and the organic vapor is a decisive factor in determining the sensing performance of CPCs. Ideally, the chosen polymer matrix should be able to swell without dissolving during vapor exposure so that the conductive network within the matrix can be disconnected, giving rise to the resistance change of CPCs. In some reported cases, polymers such as PLA and polycaprolactone (PCL) are degradable polymers, which are not durable when being exposed to environmental conditions for a long time. Therefore, it is necessary to make sure whether the selected polymers are resistive to vapors or not. There are two options for the polymer selection. One is to select a polymer that is only swellable in a specific or few organic solvents; another one is to select a polymer that is swellable to a variety of solvents. Since CPC sensors are used for detecting as many as possible hazardous chemicals to human beings or environment, the second case is more desired because of its broader window of detection. The solubility parameter is effective to characterize the interaction of polymers and organic solvents/vapors, which was firstly proposed by Charles Hansen. Initially, the Hansen solubility parameter (HSP) was used to predict the compatibility between polymer partners, chemical resistance, permeation rates, and even to characterize the surface of fillers. Liquids with similar solubility parameter (δ) are miscible, and polymers will dissolve in solvents whose δ is similar to their own value. This behavior is recognized as “like dissolves like”. Based on the description above, CPCs that can be used as liquid/vapor sensor materials should meet the following two requirements: 1) the chosen polymer should be swellable to vapors; 2) the CPCs as sensor materials have to be electrically conductive. Therefore, the relationship between conductive network and vapor sensing behavior of CPCs was investigated from the following aspects: 1) According to the previous studies, CB/polymer composites exhibit poor reversibility in cyclic vapor sensing tests because of the susceptible conductive network formed by CB particles. Thus, there is a need to improve the reversibility and increase the relative resistance change (Rrel) of CPCs. MWCNTs, as 1-dimensional carbon fillers with high aspect ratio, have excellent electrical and mechanical properties. Therefore, a hybrid filler system (MWCNT and CB) was utilized and incorporated in polycarbonate (PC) via melt compounding. PC was selected as the polymer matrix of CPCs because it showed high affinity with many commercial organic solvents/vapors as well as high and fast volume change upon organic solvents/vapors. In order to discuss the effect of conductive network formation on the vapor sensing behavior of PC/MWCNT/CB composites, two MWCNT contents were selected, which were lower and higher than the electrical percolation threshold of the PC/MWCNT composites. In the following, three CB contents were selected for the mixtures with MWCNT. The conductive networks composed of either MWCNT or hybrid CB/MWCNT are compared. The morphology of CPCs with different hybrid filler ratios was observed and investigated using SEM and OM. Moreover, to quantify the vapor sensing behavior of CPCs, some organic solvents were chosen and characterized by Flory-Huggins interaction parameter to demonstrate the polymer-vapor interaction. Afterwards, the cyclic vapor sensing was applied to illustrate the vapor sensing behavior of CPCs with different conductive network formations. 2) At moment, the filler dispersion is still a big challenge for MWCNT filled polymer composites due to the fact that the strong Van der Waals force among nanotubes makes them easily to entangle with each other resulting in the formation of agglomerates. A good filler dispersion state is desirable to achieve CPCs with low φc and. In order to reduce the φc of CPCs, immiscible polymer blend systems are introduced, which can have different blend microstructures by adjusting the polymer component ratios. In the second section, an immiscible polymer blend system based on two amorphous component, namely PC and polystyrene (PS), was chosen aiming to explain the influence of the blend morphology on the sensing performance of CPCs. PC/PS blends with different compositions filled with MWCNT were fabricated by melt mixing. The selective localization of MWCNTs in the blends was predicted using the Young’s equation. Moreover, the composite morphology, filler dispersion, and distribution were characterized by SEM and TEM. In the following, three kinds of CPCs ranging from sea-island structure to co-continuous structure were selected for the cyclic sensing measurement. The relationship between composite microstructure and resulting vapor sensing behavior was evaluated and discussed. 3) The poor reversibility of CPCs towards good solvent vapors is still a problem that hinders the cyclic use of CPC sensor materials. As an important class of polymer, crystalline polymers are rigid and less affected by solvent penetration because of the well-arranged polymer chains. Therefore, the effect of polymer crystallinity on the vapor sensing behavior of CPCs is imperative to be studied. In the third section, poly(lactic acid) (PLA), a semi-crystalline polymer, was selected to melt-mixed with PS and MWCNTs with the aim to improve the sensing reversibility of CPCs towards organic vapors, especially good solvent vapors. Thermal annealing was utilized to tune the PLA crystallinity and the polymer blend microstructure of CPCs. The electrical, morphological, and thermal behavior of CPCs after different thermal annealing times is discussed. In the following, the effect of crystallinity on the vapor sensing behavior of the CPCs was studied in detail. Besides, the different sensing performances of the CPCs towards different vapors resulted from the selective localization of MWCNTs and increased polymer matrix crystallinity were investigated and compared. 4) As discussed for the amorphous polymer blends and crystalline polymer blends and their vapor sensing behavior. The comparison of compact and porous structure of CPCs is going to be studied. In the fourth section, studies to further improve the sensing performance and to find out the exact sensing mechanism of CPCs were performed. Therefore, poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF), a solvent resistive polymer, was chosen to be melt-mixed with PC and MWCNTs. In order to compare the MWCNT dispersion and localization in the blends, three kinds of PCs with different molecular weights were selected; hence, the viscosity ratio of immiscible blends was varied. Rheological, morphological, and electrical properties of CPCs were characterized. After that, the cyclic sensing and long-term immersion tests of CPCs towards different vapors were carried out to evaluate the vapor sensing behavior of compact CPCs with different blend viscosity ratios. Moreover, porous CPC sensors were prepared by extracting the PC component. The same sensing protocols were also applied to these porous sensor materials. The sensing mechanisms between compact CPC sensor and porous CPC sensor were compared and investigated.

<p dir="ltr">Increasing power density and power consumption in electronic devices require heat dissipating components with high thermal conductivity to prevent overheating and improve performance and reliability. Polymers offer the advantages of low cost and weight over conventional metallic components, but their intrinsic thermal conductivity is low. Previous studies have shown that the thermal conductivity of polymers can be enhanced by aligning the polymer chains or by adding high thermal conductivity fillers to create percolation paths within the polymeric matrix. To further enhance the in-plane thermal conductivity, the conductive fillers can be aligned preferentially, but this leads to a lower increase in performance in the cross-plane direction. Yet, the cross-plane thermal conductivity plays a vital role in dissipating heat from active devices and transmitting it to the surrounding environment. Alternatively, when the fillers are aligned to enhance cross-plane thermal transport, the enhancement in the in-plane direction is limited. There is a need to develop polymer composites with an approximately isotropic increase in thermal performance compared to their neat counterparts.</p><p dir="ltr">To achieve this goal, in this study, I combine conductive fibers and fillers to enhance thermal conductivity of polymers without significantly inducing thermal anisotropy while preserving the mechanical performance of the matrix. I employ three approaches to enhance the thermal conductivity () of thermoset polymeric matrices. In the first approach, I fabricate thermally conductive polymer composites by creating an emulsion consisting of eutectic gallium indium alloy (EGaIn) liquid metal in the uncured polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix. In the second approach, I infiltrate mats formed from chopped fibers of Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) with an uncured epoxy resin. Finally, the third approach combines the two previous methods by infiltrating the UHMWPE fiber mat with an emulsion of the liquid metal and uncured epoxy matrix.</p><p dir="ltr">To evaluate the thermal performance of the composites, I use infrared thermal microscopy with two different experimental setups, enabling independent measurement of in-plane and cross-plane thermal conductivity. The results demonstrate that incorporating thermally conductive fillers enhances the overall conductivity of the polymer composite. Moreover, I demonstrate that the network structure achieved by the fiber mat, in combination with the presence of liquid metal, promotes a more uniform increase in the thermal conductivity of the composite in all directions. Additionally, I assess the impact of filler incorporation and filler concentration on matrix performance through tension, indentation, and bending tests for mechanical characterization of my materials.</p><p dir="ltr">This work demonstrates the potential of strategic composite design to achieve polymeric materials with isotropically high thermal conductivity. These new materials offer a solution to the challenges posed by higher power density and consumption in electronics and providing improved heat dissipation capabilities for more reliable devices.</p>

One of the aim of this study is to prepare conductive polymer nanocomposites of polypropylene to obtain better mechanical and electrical properties. Composite materials based on conductive fillers dispersed within insulating thermoplastic matrices have wide range of application. For this purpose, conductive polymer nanocomposites of polypropylene with nano dimentional conductive fillers like carbon black, carbon nanotube and fullerene were prepared. Their mechanical, electrical and thermal properties were investigated. Polypropylene (PP)/carbon black (CB) composites at different compositions were prepared via melt blending of PP with CB. The effect of CB content on mechanical and electrical properties was studied. Test samples were prepared by injection molding and compression molding techniques. Also, the effect of processing type on mechanical and electrical properties was investigated. Composites become semiconductive with the addition of 2 wt% CB. Polypropylene (PP) / Carbon Nanotube (CNT) and Polypropylene / Fullerene composites were prepared by melt mixing. CNT&rsquo / s and fullerenes were surface functionalized with HNO3 : H2SO4 before composite preparation. The CNT and fullerene content in the composites were varied as 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 % by weight. For the composites which contain surface modified CNT and fullerene four different compatibilizers were used. These were selected as TritonX-100, Poly(ethylene-block-polyethylene glycol), Maleic anhydride grafted Polypropylene and Cetramium Bromide. The effect of surface functionalization and different compatibilizer on mechanical, thermal and electrical properties were investigated. Best value of these properties were observed for the composites which were prepared with maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene and cetramium bromide. Another aim of this study is to built and characterize transistors which have polyethylene as dielectric layers. While doing this, polyethylene layer was deposited on gate electrode using vacuum evaporation system. Fullerene , Pentacene ve Indigo were used as semiconductor layer. Transistors work with low voltage and high on/off ratio were built with Aluminum oxide - PE and PE dielectrics.

This thesis focused on making composites consisting of a polymethylmethacrylate matrix, with various carbon fillers. The fillers that were examined were 3 different carbon blacks: N-550, N-772 and pureblack, and short multi-wall carbon nano-tubes. The carbon fillers were coated onto the polymethylmethacrylate, and compression molded in order to form a segregated microstructure. The goal of this thesis is to compare the electrical and optical properties of the composites consisting of a segregated microstructure, containing various carbon fillers. Scanning electron microscopy was used to investigate the fracture surface of the composites. Impedance Spectroscopy measured the electrical response of the material, and was used to determine the conductivity and dielectric properties of the composites and estimate the percolation threshold. The multi-wall carbon nano-tubes were found to have the lowest percolation threshold, due to their rod like structure. All of the carbon black fillers displayed similar characteristics in their conductivity and dielectric properties. As the filler content increased, the conductivity and the dielectric constant of the composites increased. Optical absorption measurements determined the amount of light that travel through the specimen. These measurements, showed that the absorbance for the carbon black sample N-550 were lower than the multi-wall carbon nano-tubes at filler contents below a phr of 0.1 The absorption of the carbon black samples was then higher than multi-wall carbon nano-tubes at phrs higher than 0.1. This was found to be related to the nano-tubes starting to form a segregated microstructure at lower filler contents than the sphere-like carbon black nano-particles.

Isotropically conductive adhesives (ICAs) are promising as a lead-free interconnect material; However, ICAs have a higher resistivity compared to tin/lead solder. The higher resistivity of ICAs results from the large contact resistance between conductive fillers. Several novel approaches to engineer the interface between electrically conductive fillers were studied to develop highly conductive ICAs. Shown in this dissertation are three methodologies to reduce contact resistance: low temperature sintering, fast sintering and in-situ reduction. Furthermore, two approaches, surface modification and in-situ protection, were developed to prevent oxidation and corrosion of silver-coated copper flakes to produce low cost ICAs. The findings and insights in this dissertation significantly contribute to (1) understanding of filler-filler, filler-polymer and structure-property relationships of ICAs; (2) the structural design and formulation of high performance ICAs; and (3) the wider use of ICAs in emerging applications such as printed electronics and solar cells.

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