Nonlinear electrical properties and mechanical strength of EPDM with polyaniline and carbon black filler

The influence of filler loading of polyaniline (PANI) and carbon black (CB) on the nonlinear electrical properties as well as the mechanical properties (tensile strength and Young´s modulus) of ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) was investigated. It has been found that low field conductivity was most sensitive to filler addition and in particular carbon black. Threshold field for nonlinearity onset was also influenced but the relationship between parameter values and filler content was less clear. For the nonlinearity coefficient, tensile strength and Young´s modulus there was no observable relation to filler content. The study performed here show that the polyaniline/EPDM is a composite with good possibilities for tailoring the low field conductive properties whereas the mechanical strength seems unaffected by the variation of filler content.