Fabrication of alumina based electrically conductive polymer composites

Novel electrically conductive composites were synthesized by incorporating Cu coated alumina (Cu‐Al 2 O 3 ) powder prepared via electroless plating technique as filler (0–21wt %) into polystyrene‐ b ‐methylmethacrylate (PS‐ b ‐PMMA) and polystyrene (PS) matrices. XRD analysis depicted maximum Cu crystallite growth (26.116 nm∼ plating time 30 min) onto Al 2 O 3 along with a significant change in XRD patterns of composites with Cu‐Al 2 O 3 inclusion. SEM–EDX analyses exhibited uniform Cu growth onto Al 2 O 3 and confirmed presence of Cu, Al, Pd in Cu‐Al 2 O 3 , and C, O, Al, Cu, and Pd in PS‐ b ‐PMMA and PS composites. Increasing filler loadings exhibited increased electrical conductivity (5.55 × 10 −5 S/cm for PS‐ b ‐PMMA; 5.0 × 10 −6 S/cm for PS) with increased Young's modulus (1122MPa for PS‐ b ‐PMMA; 1053.9MPa for PS) and tensile strength (27.998MPa for PS‐ b ‐PMMA; 30.585MPa for PS) and decreased % elongation. TGA demonstrated increased thermal stability and DTG revealed two‐step degradation in composites while DSC depicted pronounced increment in T g of Cu‐Al 2 O 3 /PS‐ b ‐PMMA with increased filler loading. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133 , 42939.