Improved electrical and flow properties of conductive polyolefin blends: Modification of poly(ethylene vinyl acetate) copolymer/carbon black with ethylene–propylene copolymer

Abstract Carbon black (CB) based polymer nanocomposites exhibit percolation-type conductive behaviour. In this work, the electrical performance of a nanocomposite based on poly(ethylene vinyl acetate) (EVA) was studied. By introducing a second polymer and creating a system with three phases, the filler is localised in a single phase. This localisation has been seen to affect the overall morphology of both phases, indicating that despite the phase separation there is interaction between the two systems. Furthermore, by keeping the filler to polymer ratio constant on the EVA phase, we have managed to achieve improved electrical performance by reducing the overall percolation threshold while increasing the overall amount of the second polymer. Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) imaging has been used to verify the preferential location of the conductive particles and to reveal the complex morphology developed. The results presented in this study show the possibility of specially-designed polymer compositions for conductive applications.