Design and fabrication of electrically conductive elastomer

Abstract

Electrically conductive elastomers are widely used material in the electrical industry. There are many different kinds of electrically conductive elastomers, each with different kinds of conductive filler material. A conductive filler material varies in material, shapes and sizes. It is added to a non-conductive elastomer in impart electrical conductivity to the elastomer. Different amounts of filler material are added to improve the imparted electrical conductivity. The aim of this project is to investigate the impact of incorporating conducting wires on the surface and bulk electrical conductivities of a conductive silicone rubber. By incorporating copper wires of high aspect ratio with different configurations in between layers of silicone rubber to lower the percolation threshold, the material samples show that the there is a reduction in the resistance measurements. Furthermore, the electrical resistance of the material sample show that there is a slight reduction after the material sample undergo compression moulding.