Mechanical Properties of Non-Toxic Polymer Based Composites for Electronic Devices

Abstract

The increasing demand for smart electronics has led to research on high-performance, mechanically flexible electrically conducting polymer composites. This study examined the performance improvement of adding zinc oxide (ZnO) particles to epoxy resin polymer matrix as conductive and reinforcing filler. With a fixed shape of the composite, 0-40 wt% zinc powder filled polymer composites are mechanically mixed followed by light compression moulding process. The results showed that the addition of ZnO filler significantly decreased electrical resistivity, especially for critically loaded samples. Micro hardness device was used to examine the micro hardness, as well as Universal Machine device was used to the examination the bending strength. The results of the examination of the electrical properties are a clear improvement in the values of electrical conductivity with increasing the weight ratio of zinc oxide. The test results show increase in the mechanical strength of the polymer composite at specific filler concentrations. The tensile strength, modulus and Micro hardness of the ZnO composites containing varying wt% ZnO were improved by 14, 25 and 8%, respectively, in comparison to pure epoxy. The incorporation of ZnO as conducting fillers into an insulating polymer matrix enhances the electrical conductivity to percolation threshold. The percolation threshold value for ZnO-ER composites was found approximately at 30 vol% and addition of 40 vol% ZnO increases the conductivity to 10^-11 ohm-cm. the incorporation of ZnO in the epoxy composite enhanced the mechanical and electrical conductivity properties of the composite Therefore, electronics industries can profit from the polymer composite by improving existing materials mechanically and electrically with polymer composites.