Influence of carbon nanotube clustering on the electrical conductivity of polymer composite films

Electrical conductivity of 150-200 mu m thick polysulfone films loaded with 0.05-0.75% w/w multiwall carbon nanotubes was systematically investigated for two types of dispersion states, uniformly dispersed and agglomerated at the micro-scale. The percolation threshold was found at 0.11% and 0.068% w/w for the uniformly dispersed and agglomerated films, respectively. Overall, the conductivity of the films with agglomerated nanotubes was higher than that of the uniformly dispersed ones, with marked differences of 2 to 4 orders of magnitude for carbon nanotubes loadings in the upper vicinity of the percolation threshold (0.1-0.3% w/w). The increased conductivity of the agglomerated state is explained by the increased nanotube-to-nanotube contact after the percolating network has formed, which facilitates electron transfer.