Development of melt agglomerate structure in conductive polymer composites filled with carbon black

The study on the correlation between time dependence of electrical resistivity and dynamic storage modulus for carbon black (CB) filled polymer composites was carried out. With the increase of the dynamic storage modulus (G prime ) as well as the normalized dynamic storage modulus (G prime c/G prime p), the volume resistivity (ρ) deceases with the increase of annealing time beyond the Tm of the composites. It is believed that this phenomenon can be used for examining the development of agglomerate structure of filled composites and illustrating the micro-mechanism of the NTC behavior. It is assumed that melting treatment to CB filled composites results in a higher modulus and lower resistivity due to more even local dispersion of the particles and formation of perfect CB network structure within the matrix.