Investigation of nonlinear I–V behavior of CNTs filled polymer composites

Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • Mechanism of nonlinear behavior of the CNT composites was systematically investigated. • There are one linear region (I) and two nonlinear regions (II and III) in the I–V curves. • This phenomenon was analyzed based on hopping, tunneling and Joule heating effects. - Abstract: Nonlinear current–voltage (I–V) behavior is a typical feature of polymeric composites containing conductor or semiconductor fillers, which are desired to handle the transient voltage and electrostatic discharge (ESD) of microelectronic devices. In this paper, the mechanism of nonlinear behavior of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) filled polymer composites in the applied electric field was explored. The I–V curves of the composites exhibited three regions. The variation of current at low voltages (region I) is linear. Under relatively higher voltages (region II), the variation is nonlinear and grows rapidly with voltage. As the voltage is further increased, the I–V curve is still non-linear (region III), but the growth rate is significantly slowed down. The I–V characteristics in the above three regions were analyzed systematically based on the calculation of the electrons hopping from the conduction band of CNTs to epoxy, the induced current under electric field, as well as Joule-heating and tunneling effect.