Simultaneous electrical and rheological measurements on melts of conductive polymer composites under elongation

The structure development in conductive polymer composites during deformation is a topic of great interest as the structure of conductive particle pathways governs electrical properties of the composite. In this paper simultaneous electrical and rheological measurements in elongation are introduced for the first time using a modified Münstedt tensile rheometer. Such kind of experiment can help in understanding the relationships between processing and properties of conductive polymer composites. The first results presented were obtained on polystyrene containing 4 vol.% of carbon black at the temperature of 150 °C. Similar to the shear, the conductivity development under elongation is given by a competition of flow-induced destruction and build-up of particle structures and it is considerably influenced by the strain rate applied.