CONDUCTIVE POLYMER BLENDS WITH LOW-CARBON BLACK LOADING - HIGH-IMPACTPOLYSTYRENE THERMOPLASTIC ELASTOMER (STYRENE-ISOPRENE-STYRENE)/

Electrical resistivity and morphology of high impact polystyrene (HIPS )/styrene-isoprene-styrene copolymer (SIS)/carbon black (CB) blends we re studied, Conductive CB particles locate preferentially within the M PS phase of the HIPS/SIS blends, The blends studied remain conductive as long as HIPS maintains a continuous phase and the effective CB conc entration within HIPS surmounts its percolation threshold, Thus, blend s containing 2 phr CB depict significant changes in resistivity with t he HIPS/SIS composition, transforming from insulative to conductive. S IS/CB mixtures exhibit an unusual behavior, explained by a physical mo del suggested in this paper an extended to the HIPS/SIS/CB systems.