Effect of filler concentration on electrical conductivity and ultralow-frequency dielectric properties

The effect of filler concentration on the dielectric properties in the ultralow-frequency region and on the electrical conductivity was studied for ethylene propylene rubber. First, we investigated the relation between the electrical conductivity and filler concentration: as the volume fraction of fillers q_a increased, the conductivity decreased in the low filler concentration region but increased abruptly in the high filler concentration region. The decrease and increase in conductivity can be explained with the action of carrier traps at the interface between EPR and fillers and with the formation of highly conductive paths of filler across the sample, respectively. Secondly, we studied the dielectric properties in the ultralow-frequency region which was obtained from the discharge current. As q_a increased, the relaxation time decreased in the low filler concentration region and then rose in the high filler concentration region. The polarization in the high filler concentration region can be explained by two-layer interfacial polarization between filler and rubber