Simulation of electrical percolation in disperse systems at a small difference between specific conductivities of components

Abstract

The possibility of development of electrical percolation upon variations in the contents of components in a disperse system has been studied in terms of Bruggeman’s ideas of an effective medium and the continual model of the electrical conductivity of composite materials. The case of a small difference between the specific conductivities of a dispersed phase K_m and a dispersion medium K_d has been considered. It has been shown that the dependence of electrical conductivity K of a disperse system on volume fraction p of a wellconducting component may exhibit an inflection in the vicinity of the p* value, which depends on the K_m/K_d ratio. Different methods for determining the p* value have been described. At low ratios between the conductivities of a dispersed phase and a dispersion medium, the inflection is very weakly pronounced. However, the representation of the K(p) dependences in semilog coordinated substantially facilitates its identification.