A new insight in determining the percolation threshold of electrical conductivity for extrinsically conducting polymer composites through different sigmoidal models

Abstract

The electrical conductivity of extrinsically conducting polymer composite systems passes through a transition state known as percolation threshold. A discussion has been made on how different Sigmoidal models (S-models), such as Sigmoidal-Boltzmann (SB), Sigmoidal-Dose Response (SD), Sigmoidal-Hill (SH), Sigmoidal-Logistic (SL), and Sigmoidal-Logistic-1 (SL-1), can be applied to predict the percolation threshold of electrical conductivity for ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) and acrylonitrile butadiene copolymer (NBR) conducting composite systems filled with different carbon fillers. An interesting finding that comes from these observations is that the percolation threshold for electrical conductivity determined by SB and SD models are similar, whereas, the other models give different result when estimated for a particular composite system. This similarity and discrepancy in the results of percolation threshold have been discussed by considering the strength, weakness, and limitation of the models. The percolation threshold value for the composites has also been determined using the classical percolation theory and compared with the sigmoidal models. Moreover, to check the universal applicability, these Sigmoidal models have also been tested on results from some published literature. Finally, it is revealed that, except SL-1 model, the remaining models can successfully be used to determine the percolation threshold of electrical conductivity for extrinsically conductive polymer composites. 1 2017 by the authors.