Elaboration of thermoplastic composites with high electrical conductivity – ELABELEC

Electrically conductive polymer materials are among the functional polymer materials with high added value for multiple emerging applications, particularly in the field of flexible electronics or plastronics.
2 main strategies for obtaining a conductive polymer material: the first one consists in dispersing various conductive fillers (mainly carbon nanotubes or metallic particles) by extrusion in a thermoplastic matrix. The second one consists in using one of the intrinsically conductive polymers (mainly polyanilines, polypyrrols or even polythiophenes). Recently, one of these intrinsically conductive polymers, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) PEDOT reaches electrical conductivity close to metals (around 1000 S/cm). The ELABELEC project proposes to effectively combine these 2 approaches by using fillers with different form factor (1D, 2D and 3D) whose surfaces will be modified by the polymerization of PEDOT layers (core-shell type morphology) to make them conductive. These modified fillers will then be dispersed in a thermoplastic matrix by melt extrusion to obtain electrically conductive composites. Experimental electrical percolation curves and associated theoretical models of the different systems will be discussed. The as-produces electrically conductive composites will be process by 3D printing (FDM technology) in order to produce various proofs of concept in the field of plastronics, such as the production of 100% polymer printed circuits.