Electrical and optical properties of indium tin oxide/epoxy composite film

The electrical and optical properties of the indium tin oxide （ITO）/epoxy composite exhibit dramatic variations as functions of the ITO composition and ITO particle size. Sharp increases in the conductivity in the vicinity of a critical volume fraction have been found within the framework of percolation theory. A conductive and insulating transition model is extracted by the ITO particle network in the SEM image, and verified by the resistivity dependence on the temperature. The dependence of the optical transmittance on the particle size was studied. Further decreasing the ITO particle size could further improve the percolation threshold and light transparency of the composite film.

A micromechanical model for efective conductivity in granular electrode structures

Optimization of composition and microstructure is important to enhance performance of solid oxide fuel cells （SOFC） and lithium-ion batteries （LIB）. For this, the porous electrode structures of both SOFC and LIB are modeled as a binary mixture of electronic and ionic conducting particles to estimate effective transport properties. Particle packings of 10000 spherical, binary sized and randomly positioned particles are created numerically and densified considering the different manufacturing processes in SOFC and LIB： the sintering of SOFC electrodes is approximated geometrically, whereas the calendering process and volume change due to intercalation in LIB are modeled physically by a discrete el- ement approach. A combination of a tracking algorithm and a resistor network approach is developed to predict the con- nectivity and effective conductivity for the various densified structures. For SOFC, a systematic study of the influence of morphology on connectivity and conductivity is performed on a large number of assemblies with different compositions and particle size ratios between 1 and 10. In comparison to percolation theory, an enlarged percolation area is found, es- pecially for large size ratios. It is shown that in contrast to former studies the percolation threshold correlates to varying coordination numbers. The effective conductivity shows not only an increase with volume fraction as expected but also with size ratio. For LIB, a general increase of conductivity during the intercalation process was observed in correlation with increasing contact forces. The positive influence of cal- endering on the percolation threshold and the effective conductivity of carbon black is shown. The anisotropy caused by the calendering process does not influence the carbon black phase.

Conductivity of Poly(methyl methacrylate)/Polystyrene/Carbon Black and Poly(ethyl methacrylate)/Polystyrene/Carbon Black Ternary Composite Films

Poly(methyl methacrylate)(PMMA)/polystyrene(PS)/carbon black(CB)and poly(ethyl methacrylate)(PEMA)/PS/CB ternary composite films were obtained using solution casting technique to investigate double percolation effect.In both PMMA/PS/CB and PEMA/PS/CB ternary composite films,the CB particles prefer to locate into PS phase based on the results of calculating wetting coefficient,which is also confirmed by SEM images.The conductivity of the films was investigated,and the percolation threshold(￠c)of both ternary composite films with different polymer blend ratios was determined by fitting the McLachlan GEM equation.Conductivity of PMMA/PS/CB ternary composite films showed a typical double percolation effect.However,due to the double emulsion structure of PEMA/PS polymer blends,the PEMA/PS/CB ternary composite films(PEMA/PS=50/50)showed a higher￠c,even CB only located in PS phase,which conflicts with the double percolation effect.A schematic diagram combined with SEM images was proposed to explain this phenomenon.