Electrical conductivities of carbon nanotube-filled polycarbonate/polyester blends

Carbon nanotube (CNT)-filled polycarbonate (PC)/poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) and polycarbonate (PC)/poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) blends containing 1 wt% CNTs over a wide range of blend compositions were prepared by melt mixing in a torque rheometer to investigate the structure-electrical conductivity relationship. Field emission scanning electron microscopy was used to observe the blend morphology and the distribution of CNTs. The latter was compared with the thermodynamic predictions through the calculation of wetting coefficients. It was found that CNTs are selectively localized in the polyester phase and conductive blends can be obtained over the whole composition range (20 wt%, 50 wt% and 80 wt% PBT) for CNT-filled PC/PBT blends, while conductive CNT-filled PC/PET blends can only be obtained when PET is the continuous phase (50 wt%, 80 wt% PET). The dramatic difference in the electrical conductivity between the two types of CNT-filled PC/polyester blends at a low polyester content (20 wt%) was explained by the size difference of the dispersed phases on the basis of the transmission electron microscope micrographs.