Electrical properties of carbon-containing epoxy compositions under shape memory effect realization

The behavior of electrical resistance R of compression-deformed samples of the epoxy polymer-thermoexpanded graphite (EP-TEG) and EP-TEG-kaolin compositions has been investigated in the shape recovery temperature range. It is shown that the process of shape recovery is accompanied by a jump-like increase of R related to the sample length change. The addition of kaolin decreases the absolute value of electrical resistivity of the deformed polymer compositions and increases the value of R jump. The revealed changes in R are explained with the attraction of data on differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements, results of investigations of composite microstructure and percolation model representations. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.