Activation Energy and Dielectric Properties of Epoxy Nanocomposites with Carbon Nanotubes and Carbon Black
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.57159/jcmm.4.4.25223Keywords:
Arrhenius Activation Energy, Dielectric Properties, AC Conductivity, Multiwall Carbon Nanotubes, Carbon BlackAbstract
This study presents a comparative analysis of multiwall carbon nanotube–epoxy (MWCNT–EP) and carbon black–epoxy (CB–EP) nanocomposites to evaluate the influence of filler concentration and frequency on activation energy and dielectric properties. Activation energy was obtained from the slopes of Arrhenius plots (ln sigma vs. 1/T) at 0.5, 5, and 10 kHz. Both composites showed higher activation energy at 0.5 kHz due to long-range charge-carrier hopping, whereas higher frequencies promoted localized transport between adjacent defect sites. Increasing filler concentration further reduced activation energy, reflecting saturation of dangling bonds, lower density of states, and reduced domain boundary potential. Dielectric analysis revealed that CB–EP composites consistently possessed higher dielectric constants than MWCNT–EP composites at equivalent filler loadings, owing to CB's smaller particle size and greater surface area. For both composites, the dielectric constant decreased with increasing frequency, consistent with interfacial polarization effects. These findings clarify how carbonaceous fillers influence the electrical and dielectric behavior of epoxy nanocomposites.
References
J. J. Karippal, H. N. Murthy, K. Rai, M. Krishna, and M. Sreejith, “The processing and characterization of MWCNT/epoxy and CB/epoxy nanocomposites using twin screw extrusion,” Polymer-Plastics Technology and Engineering, vol. 49, pp. 1207–1213, 2010.
R. J. Tseng, J. Huang, J. Ouyang, R. B. Kaner, and Y. Yang, “Polyaniline nanofiber/gold nanoparticle nonvolatile memory,” Nano Letters, vol. 5, pp. 1077–1080, 2005.
L. Pan, H. Qiu, C. Dou, Y. Li, L. Pu, J. Xu, and Y. Shi, “Conducting polymer nanostructures: Template synthesis and applications in energy storage,” International Journal of Molecular Sciences, vol. 11, pp. 2636–2657, 2010.
X. Huang, X. Zhang, G.-K. Ren, J. Jiang, Z. Dan, Q. Zhang, X. Zhang, C.-W. Nan, and Y. Shen, “Non-intuitive concomitant enhancement of dielectric permittivity, breakdown strength and energy density in percolative polymer nanocomposites by trace Ag nanodots,” Journal of Materials Chemistry A, vol. 7, pp. 15198–15206, 2019.
M. E. Hasnaoui, M. Graça, M. Achour, L. Costa, F. Lahjomri, A. Outzourhit, and A. Oueriagli, “Electrical properties of carbon black/copolymer composites above and below the melting temperature,” Journal of Materials and Environmental Science, vol. 2, pp. 1–6, 2011.
W. Zhang, R. S. Blackburn, and A. Dehghani-Sanij, “Electrical conductivity of epoxy resin–carbon black–silica nanocomposites: Effect of silica concentration and analysis of polymer curing reaction by FTIR,” Scripta Materialia, vol. 57, pp. 949–952, 2007.
Q. Liang, M. T. Nyugen, K.-S. Moon, K. Watkins, L. T. Morato, and C. P. Wong, “A kinetics study on electrical resistivity transition of in situ polymer aging sensors based on carbon-black-filled epoxy conductive polymeric composites (CPCs),” Journal of Electronic Materials, vol. 42, pp. 1114–1121, 2013.
C. Brosseau, P. Qu’eff’elec, and P. Talbot, “Microwave characterization of filled polymers,” Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 89, pp. 4532–4540, 2001.
M. E. Hasnaoui, A. Triki, M. Graça, M. Achour, L. Costa, and M. Arous, “Electrical conductivity studies on carbon black loaded ethylene butylacrylate polymer composites,” Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, vol. 358, pp. 2810–2815, 2012.
J. Vilč’akov’a, P. Šaha, V. Křes’alek, and O. Quadrat, “Pre-exponential factor and activation energy of electrical conductivity in polyester resin/carbon fibre composites,” Synthetic Metals, vol. 113, pp. 83–87, 2000.
M. Trihotri, U. Dwivedi, F. H. Khan, M. Malik, and M. Qureshi, “Effect of curing on activation energy and dielectric properties of carbon black–epoxy composites at different temperatures,” Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, vol. 421, pp. 1–13, 2015.
A. Avdonin, P. Skupi’nski, and K. Grasza, “Experimental investigation of the typical activation energy and distance of hopping electron transport in ZnO,” Physica B: Condensed Matter, vol. 562, pp. 94–99, 2019.
J. A. R. Adriaanse, P. A. A. Teunissen, H. B. Brom, M. A. J. Michels, and J. C. M. Brokken-Zijp, “High-dilution carbon-black/polymer composites: Hierarchical percolating network derived from Hz to THz AC conductivity,” Physical Review Letters, vol. 78, p. 1755, 1997.
J. Yang and L. Li, “Aggregate structure and percolation behavior in polymer/carbon black conductive composites,” Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 102, p. 083508, 2007.
C. Rubinger, V. Junqueira, G. Ribeiro, and R. Rubinger, “Hopping conduction on conductive inks for wearable electronics,” Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics, vol. 24, pp. 2091–2097, 2013.
P. K. J. Macutkevic, A. Paddubskaya, S. Maksimenko, J. Banys, A. Celzard, V. Fierro, S. Bistarelli, A. Cataldo, F. Micciulla, and S. Bellucci, “Electrical transport in carbon black–epoxy resin composites at different temperatures,” Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 114, p. 033707, 2013.
W. S. Chin and D. G. Lee, “Dielectric characteristics of E-glass–polyester composite containing conductive carbon black powder,” Journal of Composite Materials, vol. 41, pp. 403–417, 2007.
O. G. Abdullah, G. M. Jamal, D. A. Tahir, and S. R. Saeed, “Electrical characterization of polyester reinforced by carbon black particles,” International Journal of Applied Physics and Mathematics, vol. 1, p. 101, 2011.
Z. Elimat, “AC-impedance and dielectric properties of hybrid polymer composites,” Journal of Composite Materials, vol. 49, pp. 3–15, 2015.
L. Bokobza, “Multiwall carbon nanotube elastomeric composites: A review,” Polymer, vol. 48, pp. 4907–4920, 2007.
L. Guadagno, B. D. Vivo, A. D. Bartolomeo, P. Lamberti, A. Sorrentino, V. Tucci, L. Vertuccio, and V. Vittoria, “Effect of functionalization on the thermo-mechanical and electrical behavior of multi-wall carbon nanotube/epoxy composites,” Carbon, vol. 49, pp. 1919–1930, 2011.
M. Trihotri, U. Dwivedi, M. Malik, F. H. Khan, and M. Qureshi, “Study of low weight percentage filler on dielectric properties of MCWNT-epoxy nanocomposites,” Journal of Advanced Dielectrics, vol. 6, p. 1650024, 2016.
L. Sudha, R. Sukumar, and K. U. Rao, “Evaluation of activation energy (Ea) profiles of nanostructured alumina polycarbonate composite insulation materials,” International Journal of Materials, Mechanics and Manufacturing, vol. 2, pp. 96–100, 2014.
J. Katayama, Y. Ohki, N. Fuse, M. Kozako, and T. Tanaka, “Effects of nanofiller materials on the dielectric properties of epoxy nanocomposites,” IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation, vol. 20, pp. 157–165, 2013.
Q. Wang and G. Chen, “Effect of nanofillers on the dielectric properties of epoxy nanocomposites,” Advances in Materials Research, vol. 1, pp. 93–107, 2012.
M. Achour, A. Mdarhri, F. Carmona, F. Lahjomri, and A. Oueriagli, “Dielectric properties of carbon black–epoxy resin composites studied with impedance spectroscopy,” Spectroscopy Letters, vol. 41, pp. 81–86, 2008.
R. Strumpler and J. Glatz-Reichenbach, “Conducting polymer composites,” Journal of Electroceramics, vol. 3, pp. 329–346, 1999.
J. P. Runt and J. J. Fitzgerald, Dielectric Spectroscopy of Polymeric Materials. American Chemical Society, 1997.
N. Singh, S. Shah, A. Qureshi, A. Tripathi, F. Singh, D. Avasthi, and P. Raole, “Effect of ion beam irradiation on metal particle doped polymer composites,” Bulletin of Materials Science, vol. 34, pp. 81–88, 2011.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Journal of Computers, Mechanical and Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
The Journal of Computers, Mechanical and Management applies the CC Attribution- Non-Commercial 4.0 International License to its published articles. While retaining copyright ownership of the content, the journal permits activities such as downloading, reusing, reprinting, modifying, distributing, and copying of the articles, as long as the original authors and source are appropriately cited. Proper attribution is ensured by citing the original publication.
The journal is licensed under an 