Conductive rubber composites usually suffer a large filler content and relatively low conductivity because the uniform dispersion of conductive nanofillers in rubbers is probably inhibited by the cross-link networks. However, by establishing a double-network model of cross-link and conductive networks, we found the connection of one-dimensional nanofillers could be improved by cross-link networks, which stabilized the conductive network. The percolation value of nanofillers could reduce to 0.06 wt % in experiments, using carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with 9.5 nm diameter and 1.5 μm length as nanofillers and poly(dimethylsiloxane) as the matrix. Moreover, the conductive network owned a critical exponent of 5.63, which was higher than that of conventional conductive networks (ca. 2). This feature proved that the connection between CNTs was improved by the poly(dimethylsiloxane) cross-link network. This work subverted the fundamental conception that cross-link networks in rubbers should make fillers aggregate, and we believed it would conduce to the development of sensors and flexible devices of rubber composites.
Isolated conductors appear in various electrostatic problems. In simulations, an equipotential condition with an undefined/floating potential value is enforced on the surface of isolated conductors. In this work, a numerical scheme making use of the discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method is proposed to model such conductors in electrostatic problems. A floating-potential boundary condition, which involves the equipotential condition together with a total charge condition, is ''weakly'' enforced on the conductor surfaces through the numerical flux of the DG method. Compared to adaptations of the finite element method used for modeling conductors, this proposed method is more accurate, capable of imposing charge conditions, and simpler to implement. Numerical results, which demonstrate the accuracy and applicability of the proposed method, are presented. INDEX TERMS Discontinuous Galerkin method, electrostatics, finite element method, floating potential conductors, magnetostatics, plasmonic-enhanced photoconductive antenna.
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