Simultaneous Visualization of Microscopic Conductivity and Deformation in Conductive Elastomers

Abstract Conductive elastomers are promising for a wide range of applications in many fields due to their unique mechanical and electrical properties, and an understanding of the conductive mechanisms of such materials under deformation is crucial. However, revealing the microscopic conduction mechanism of conductive elastomers has been a challenge, mainly due to the lack of characterization means available to track the electrical properties of deformable materials at the nanoscale. In this study, we developed a new method that combines in situ deformation nanomechanical atomic force microscopy (AFM) and conductive AFM to successfully and simultaneously characterize the microscopic deformation and microscopic electrical conductivity of nanofiller composite conductive elastomers. With this approach, we visualized the conductive network structure of carbon black and carbon nanotube composite conductive elastomers at the nanoscale for the first time, tracked their microscopic response under different compressive strains, and revealed the correlation between microscopic and macroscopic electrical properties. This novel method is not limited to nanofiller composite conductive elastomers, the microscopic deformation and microscopic electrical conductivity of almost all composite conductive elastomers can be characterized by this method. This technique is important for understanding the conductive mechanism of conductive elastomers and improving the design of conductive elastomers.