Poly(dimethylsiloxane)/Cu/Ag nanocomposites: Electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties

Multifunctional materials are urgently required for sensing and actuation purposes in microfluidic devices. In this study, poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) filled with Cu and Ag nanoparticles was prepared and its electrical conductivity (EC), thermal conductivity (TC), and mechanical properties were investigated. EC investigations showed that all the prepared compositions had a nearly similar percolation threshold of around 10 vol% of filler. However, the EC of nanocomposites filled with both Cu and Ag (PDMS/Cu/Ag) was about 1.8 S/cm, which was 200% higher compared with that of other compositions (0.3 and 0.6 S/cm). TC was found to undergo profound increase of 10.5‐fold (1.68 W.m⁻¹.K⁻¹ for PDMS/Cu/Ag) when compared with that of the insulating base polymer (0.16 W.m⁻¹.K⁻¹). Evaluation of mechanical properties demonstrated that Young's modulus of PDMS increased by 270% after adding the filler content, but the tensile strength showed a notable reduction of 12%. The final result of this study showed that PDMS/Cu/Ag nanocomposites could be considered as a suitable novel material in microchannel preparation and microfluidic devices. POLYM. COMPOS., 40:4093–4101, 2019. © 2019 Society of Plastics Engineers