Segregated Conductive Ultrahigh-Molecular-Weight Polyethylene Composites Containing High-Density Polyethylene as Carrier Polymer of Graphene Nanosheets

This article reports a novel conductive ultrahigh-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) composite with a segregated and double percolated structure, in which graphene nanosheets (GNSs) form prefect conductive pathways in the high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and the GNS/HDPE component forms continuous conductive layers at the interface between the UHMWPE granules. The combination of segregated and double-percolated GNS conductive network achieved an ultralow percolation of 0.05 vol. %. Structural observations and the determination of the critical exponent t-value obtained from the classical threshold mechanism indicate the formation of a two-dimensional GNS network in GNS/HDPE/UHMWPE composites. Comparison of the electrical performance of GNS and CNT-filled segregated composites indicated that the geometry of the conductive nanoparticles can greatly affect the dimensionality of the segregated conductive network.