Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics, Vol.35, No.9, 1349-1359, 1997
Polystyrene Glass Bead Composites - Maxwell-Wagner-Sillars Relaxations and Percolation
Dielectric spectrometry experiments are performed on a series of polystyrene-glass bead composites with volume filler content from 0 to 50% and with three particle diameters (5 mu m, 20 mu m, and 90 mu m) in order to study the Maxwell-Wagner-Sillars (MWS) relaxations and the percolation phenomena. In the high-temperature region (130 to 220 degrees C), the experimental data give evidence of MWS relaxations for all the composite systems, whatever the bead size and the filler content are. A good agreement is found between the experimental values of the maximum loss factor frequency and the theoretical ones drawn from the van Beek. formula, especially for low contents. A percolation phenomenon is shown in the low-temperature region (40 to 120 degrees C) for high-content/low-size composites. The percolation threshold, determined by considering the critical interparticle distance, is below 15.0% for the 5 mu m glass bead composites and above 47.3% for the 90 mu m composites; it Lies between 20.5 and 28.6% for the 20 mu m composites. Two schematic models, based on a distribution of the sizes and on a random dispersion of the beads, are developed to show how MWS and percolation phenomena can both be observed for the high-content/low-size composites.
Keywords:CONDUCTING POLYMER COMPOSITES;ELECTRICAL-CONDUCTIVITY;CARBON-BLACK;CONTINUUM PERCOLATION;BEHAVIOR;CLUSTERS;SYSTEMS;THRESHOLD;BLENDS