Electrical Conductivity of Lignocellulose Composites Loaded with Electrodeposited Copper Powders. Part III. Influence of Particle Morphology on Appearance of Electrical Conductive Layers

The electrical conductivity of the system based on lignocellulose (LC) biopolymer matrix filled with electrodeposited copper powder has been studied. Galvanostatically produced copper powder, having highly porous, highly dendritic particles with high values of specific area was used as filler. Volume fraction of the electrodeposited copper powder was varied from 2.0-29.8 vol%. Analysis of the most significant properties of prepared composites and its components included measurements of electrical conductivity, impedance spectroscopy (IS) behavior, structural and morphological analysis. The composite preparation conditions allowed the formation of a random distribution of metallic particles in the polymer matrix volume. It was shown that percolation threshold depends on both particle shape and type of spatial distribution. IS measurements have shown that particle morphology having pronounced grain boundaries has great effect on appearance of electric conductive layers, i.e.. movement. of percolation threshold towards lower filler volume fractions. IS response of the composites showed existence of electrical conductive layers, each having different resistivity which increases towards interior of the composite