Electrically conductive nanocomposites of epoxy/polyaniline nanowires doped with formic acid: effect of loading on the conduction and mechanical properties

Abstract

This paper reports the preparation and characterization of nanocomposites consisting of epoxy resin (EP) and conducting polyaniline nanowires doped with formic acid (PANI-FA). The percolation threshold of this nanocomposites was obtained at 8 wt.% of PANI-FA loading. On the other hand, 8 wt.% of PANI-FA resulted in reduction of tensile and flexural modulus up to 30% and 16%, respectively. The fracture morphological analysis revealed a distinct PANI-FA domain on the EP matrix after the percolation threshold has been reached. Using the scaling law of the percolation theory, it was found that the conductivity of the nanocomposites exhibited an exponential factor, (t) of 0.417.