The nonlinear synergistic enhancement electric conductive effect in polymer-matrix composites containing hybrid fillers of carbon nanotubes and graphene nanoplatelets

Abstract Polymer-matrix composites containing hybrid fillers can exhibit electric performance due to synergistic conductive effect. In this work, the nonlinear synergistic enhancement electric conductive effect (NSECE) in nanocomposites containing carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) is studied by the 3D Monte Carlo simulation. The 3D model with random distribution based on tunnel theory for nanocomposites filled with cylindrical CNTs and disc-shaped GNPs is developed. The morphology of CNTs and GNPs are researched for the NSECE in percolation threshold. The results show that the reason of NSECE is the different network construction ability of CNTs and GNPs with different morphology. When the monofiller nanocomposites of each of those exact fillers have similar percolation thresholds and the length of CNTs is smaller than the diameter of GNPs, hybrid nanocomposites filled with CNTs and GNPs is more likely to exhibit NSECE in their electrical performance.