Study on Mechanical and Electrical Properties of Expanded Graphite/Carbon fiber hybrid Conductive Polymer Composites

Expanded graphite/carbon fiber hybrid conductive polymer composites were fabricated by the preform molding technique. The conductive fillers were mechanically mixed with a phenol resin to provide an electrical property to composites. The conductive filler loading was fixed at 60wt.% to accomplish a high electrical conductivity. Expanded graphites were excellent in forming a conductive networking by direct contacts between them while it was hard to get the high flexural strength over 40MPa with using only expanded graphite and phenol resin. In this study, carbon fibers were added in composites to compensate the weakened flexural strength. The effect of carbon fibers on the mechanical and electrical properties was examined according to the weight ratio of carbon fiber. As the carbon fiber ratio increased, the flexural strength increased until the carbon fiber ratio of 24wt.%, and then decreased afterward. The electrical conductivity gradually decreased as the increase of the carbon fiber ratio. This was attributed to the non-conducting regions generated among the carbon fibers and the reduction of the direct contact areas between expanded graphites.