Vibration interference in SIM imaging of LIPSS in experiments without antivibration

Vibration interference in SIM imaging of LIPSS in experiments without antivibratio

Two-Stage Electrical Percolation of Metal Nanoparticle–Polymer Nanocomposites

Recent experiments showed that gold nanoparticle (NP)–polymer composite exhibits excellent properties such as high stretchability and electron conductivity, rendering this novel material promising for bendable and stretchable electronics and optoelectronics. Theoretical models have been proposed to investigate the conduction mechanism; however, the role of the quantum tunneling effect in electrical percolation remains unclear. Here, we used a numerical approach together with Monte Carlo sampling to investigate the percolation of the gold NP–polymer system. The effects of the electron tunneling and the inter-NP van der Waals interaction were considered in the model. A distinct two-stage electrical percolation behavior is identified because of the effect of electron tunneling at the nanoscale. Such an effect is found to be dependent on the radii of gold NPs and becomes negligible when the radius is larger than 195 nm. The observed behavior is also sensitive to the potential barrier height of the hosting polymer. Our result therefore not only provides new insights into the conduction mechanism of the gold NP–polymer composites but also offers a new strategy for designing a metal NP–polymer system with desired properties