A study about the relationships between surface structures and electrical impedance characteristics in single-walled carbon nanotube / polyester composites

Abstract

The present study aims to understand the relation between impedance characteristics and fractal behaviours. The pure and single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) reinforced unsaturated polyester resin (UPR)-based composite specimens were produced by the hot press process with this aim. The Nyquist variation in the neat sample shows a straight line, which can describe the great resistance in the material and its insulating nature, while the Nyquist plots of the carbon nanotube doped sample show an almost semi-circular shape, indicating the presence of electrical conductivity. In addition, fractal analysis with statistical scaling method is used to determine the relationships between the superficial heteromorphology and electrical properties of samples. The surface particle coverage rates, fractal dimensions, cluster pattern structures, Feret diameters and Feret angles were calculated for samples. Feret angle decreases indicating that the distance between clusters is decreasing as coverage ratio, fractal dimension and Feret diameter increases.