• Advanced Composite Materials
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• 제17권3호
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• pp.259-275
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• 2008

This study aims to optimize the mechanical and electrical properties of electrically conductive polymer composites (CPCs) for use as a material of bipolar plates for PEM fuel cells. The thin CPCs consisting of conductive fillers and polymer resin were fabricated by a preform molding technique. Expanded graphite (EG), flake-type graphite (FG) and carbon fiber (CF) were used as conductive fillers. This study tested two types of CPCs, EG/FG filled CPCs and EG/CF filled CPCs, to optimize the material properties. First, the characteristics of EG/FG filled CPCs were investigated according to the FG ratio for 7 and $100{\mu}m$ sized FG. CPCs using $100{\mu}m$ FG showed optimal material properties at 60 wt% FG ratio, which were an electrical conductivity of 390 S/cm and flexural strength of 51 MPa. 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 levels of densification. The electrical conductivity also showed size-dependent behavior because of the different contributions to the conductive network. Meanwhile, the material properties of EG/CF filled CPCs was also optimized according to the CF ratio, and the optimized electrical conductivity and flexural strength were 290 S/cm and 58 MPa, respectively. The electrical conductivity of this case decreased similarly to the EG/FG filled case. On the other hand, the behavior of the flexural strength was more complicated than the EG/FG filled case, and the reason was attributed to the interaction between the strengthening effect of CF and the deterioration of voids.

• Composites Research
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• 제35권4호
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• pp.223-231
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• 2022

최근 미래 모빌리티 시장의 급격한 성장으로 자동차에 전장부품이 다량 탑재되면서 부품간 오작동을 최소화하기 위해 자동차 시장에서도 전자파 차폐에 대한 중요성이 커지고 있다. 이에 따라 전기전도성 고분자 복합소재(Conductive Polymer Composites, CPC)가 자동차용 차폐재로 각광받고 있으나, 산업에 일반적으로 요구되는 20 dB 이상의 전자파 차폐 성능 달성을 위해서는 고 함량의 전도성 필러 충진이 요구되므로 기계적 물성 향상, 원가 절감 측면에서 CPC의 전도성 필러 함량을 줄이기 위한 연구가 필수적이다. 본 논문에서는 이 중 필러 함량을 획기적으로 줄일 수 있는 Segregated structure 필러 네트워크 기반의 CPC를 제조하기 위한 공법들을 소개하고, 각 제조 공법 별 전자파 차폐 성능을 비교하고 분석하였다.

• Carbon letters
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• 제15권2호
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• pp.117-124
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• 2014

Conductive polymer composites (CPCs) consist of a polymeric matrix and a conductive filler, for example, carbon black, carbon fibers, graphite or carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The critical amount of the electrically conductive filler necessary to build up a continuous conductive network, and accordingly, to make the material conductive; is referred to as the percolation threshold. From technical and economical viewpoints, it is desirable to decrease the conductive-filler percolation-threshold as much as possible. In this study, we investigated the effect of polymer/conductive-filler interactions, as well as the processing and morphological development of low-percolation-threshold (${\Phi}c$) conductive-polymer composites. The aim of the study was to produce conductive composites containing less multi-walled CNTs (MWCNTs) than required for pure polypropylene (PP) through two approaches: one using various mixing methods and the other using immiscible polymer blends. Variants of the conductive PP composite filled with MWCNT was prepared by dry mixing, melt mixing, mechanofusion, and compression molding. The percolation threshold (${\Phi}c$) of the MWCNT-PP composites was most successfully lowered using the mechanofusion process than with any other mixing method (2-5 wt%). The mechanofusion process was found to enhance formation of a percolation network structure, and to ensure a more uniform state of dispersion in the CPCs. The immiscible-polymer blends were prepared by melt mixing (internal mixer) poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF, PP/PVDF, volume ratio 1:1) filled with MWCNT.