Electrical resistivity and dielectric properties of helical microorganism cells coated with silver by electroless plating

Highlights: ► We use the microorganism cells as forming templates to fabricate the bio-based conductive particles. ► The microorganism cells selected as forming templates are Spirulina platens, which are of natural helical shape and high aspect ratio. ► The sliver-coated Spirulina cells are a kind of lightweight conductive particles. ► The composites containing sliver-coated Spirulina cells exhibit a lower percolation value. - Abstract: In this paper, microorganism cells (Spirulina platens) were used as forming templates for the fabrication of the helical functional particles by electroless silver plating process. The morphologies and ingredients of the coated Spirulina cells were analyzed with scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectrometer. The crystal structures were characterized by employing the X-ray diffraction. The electrical resistivity and dielectric properties of samples containing different volume faction of sliver-coated Spirulina cells were measured and investigated by four-probe meter and vector network analyzer. The results showed that the Spirulina cells were successfully coated with a uniform silver coating and their initial helical shapes were perfectly kept. The electrical resistivity and dielectric properties of the samples had a strong dependence on the volume content of sliver-coated Spirulina cells and the samples could achieve a low percolation value owing to high aspect ratio and preferable helical shape of Spirulina cells. Furthermore, the conductive mechanism was analyzed with the classic percolation theory, and the values of φc and t were obtained.