ELECTRICAL-CONDUCTIVITY IN HETEROGENEOUS POLYMER SYSTEMS .5. FURTHER EXPERIMENTAL-EVIDENCE FOR A PHASE-TRANSITION AT THE CRITICAL VOLUME CONCENTRATION

A new dispersion/flocculation phase transition model for the conductivity jump at the critical volume concentration of a conductive phase in an insulating matrix polymer is discussed. New experimental data including: SEM evaluations of the "seam" structure, excess pyrolytic residue analysis, BET measurements of dependence on conductive phase content, and temperature dependence of conductivity are presented for supporting the new model. Finally a first qualitative step towards a new non-equilibrium thermodynamical description of these dissipative structures will be described.