Analysis of the Structure of Composite Systems by Means of Fractal Characteristics Using the BaTiO3–Fullerenol–CEPVA System as an Example

An approach is proposed to study the composition–structure–properties relationship in composite materials, which is based on a statistical analysis of the distribution of structural elements of the composite between the section fragments and the calculation of fractal parameters as quantitative characteristics of the structure of materials. The promise of this approach is demonstrated using an example of the analysis of the microstructure of composite materials based on cyanoethyl ether of polyvinyl alcohol (CEPVA) with barium titanate (BaTiO3) ferroelectric filler modified by the precipitation of fullerenol C60(OH)42. It is shown that the modification leads to a decrease in the span and standard deviation of the number of particles between the composite fragments, an increase in the average number of particles in the fragments, a decrease in the lacunarity of filling the polymer matrix with filler particles, and an increase in the intensity of all distribution maxima of the lattice density and correlation radii starting from the second maximum. The obtained results demonstrate a substantial increase in the uniformity of distribution of filler particles throughout the matrix and prevention of their agglomeration, which provides an increase by an order of magnitude in the dielectric constant of the composites and makes the proposed material promising for use in electronic devices.