Improving electrical conductivity in polycarbonate nanocomposites using highly conductive PEDOT/PSS coated MWCNTs

We describe a strategy to design highly electrically conductive polycarbonate nanocomposites by using multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) coated with a thin layer of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(styrenesulfonate), a conductive polymer. We found that this coating method improves the electrical properties of the nanocomposites in two ways. First, the coating becomes the main electrical conductive path. Second, the coating promotes the formation of a percolation network at a low filler concentration (0.3 wt %). To tailor the electrical properties of the conductive polymer coating, we used a polar solvent ethylene glycol, and we can tune the final properties of the nanocomposite by controlling the concentrations of the elementary constituents or the intrinsic properties of the conductive polymer coating. This very flexible technique allows for tailoring the properties of the final product.