A Comparative Study on AC Conductivity and Dielectric Behavior of Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes and Polyaniline Coated Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes Filled High Density Polyethylene-Carbon Black Nanocomposites

This paper presents an experimental investigation on AC conductivity and dielectric behavior of carbon black reinforced high density polyethylene (HDPE-CB) and HDPE-CB filled with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs-CB-HDPE) and Polyaniline (PAni) coated MWNTs-CB-HDPE nanocomposites. The electrical properties such as dielectric constant (ε'), dissipation factor (tan δ) and AC conductivity (σac) of nanocomposites have been measured with reference to the weight fraction (0.5 and 1 wt% MWNTs), frequency (75 KHz-30 MHz), temperature (25-90 deg. C) and sea water ageing. The experimental results showed that the increased AC conductivity and dielectric constant of the nanocomposites were influenced by PAni coated MWNTs in HDPE-CB nanocomposites. The value of dielectric constant and tan δ decreased with increasing frequency. Further more, above 5 MHz the AC conductivity increases drastically whereas significant effect on tan δ was observed in less than 1 MHz.