Electrical conductivity model filled liquid crystal polymer evaluation of carbon fiber composites

Electrically conductive resins may have applications as fuel cell bipolar plates. The current trend in this technology is a thermosetting polymer as the rnatrix containing high concentrations of various types of fillers. These fillers are carbon based and electrically conductive powders, particles, or fibers. In this study, we utilized two composite formulations of polyacrylonitrile fibers (Fortafil 243 and Panex 30) in a liquid crystal polymer (Vectra A950RX) with increasing concentrations. Electrical conductivity tests were performed and modified Mamunya and additive models were applied to the experimental data. These models fit the entire range of data for each composite tested. Four alternate models were also produced: linear, quadratic, exponential, and geometric, with a restricted range of electrical conductivity data greater than 10(-2) S/cm. The exponential and the geometric resulted in the best fits over this restricted data range. These particular models may allow researchers to extrapolate beyond the maximum filler concentrations studied here. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals.