Electrical conductivity of poly(vinyl chloride) plastisol–short carbon fiber composite

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Abstract
In this work, short carbon fibers were blended with poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) plastisol forming a conductive network of the fibers in the composite. The effects of concentration and initial length of the carbon fibers on the conductivity of the network were studied. For an initial fiber length of 3 mm (L/D = 428), the volume resistivity of the network decreased rapidly from 4.3 × 105 to 5.1 × 100 Ω‐m for a change in the fiber concentration of 0.5 to 1.0 phr. The samples prepared by the plastisol method also showed excellent antistatic properties at very low fiber concentration (e.g. 1.0 phr), better than the samples that were prepared by mill mixing. Observation of the morphology showed that the short carbon fibers maintained their initial length in the PVC plastisol‐carbon fiber composite, without obvious breakage. This is why a conductive network in the plastisol‐carbon fiber composite can be formed at very low fiber concentrations.