Electrically conductive metal polymer nanocomposites for electronics applications

An electrically conductive nanocomposite composed of thermoplastic elastomer and nanosized silver particles was developed. Nanosized silver particles were produced by the liquid flame spraying method. Nanocomposites were produced employing a batch mixing process in the melt state. The percolation curve and the minimum resistivity as a function of silver content were defined. A plasticized styrene block-copolymer was used as the matrix polymer. The results showed that the agglomeration of the silver particles has a major influence on the percolation threshold and the resistivity of the compound. With slightly agglomerated silver particles a percolation threshold with a silver content of 13–16 vol.% was achieved. The corresponding resistivity was 2.0 × 10⁻¹ Ω cm. With heavily agglomerated particles the resistivity is high (2.9 × 10³ Ω cm), even with a silver content of 20 vol.%. With a low primary silver particle size (under 100 nm), the resistivity of the compound was high (5.6 × 10⁵ Ω cm).