Novel Conductive Blacks for Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) Applications

Traditional carbon blacks can impart conductivity to plastic resins but often result in loss of physical properties. The complex interaction between the dispersed carbon black particles and the polymeric phase(s) has been investigated. The understanding of this interaction in the light of the competing mechanical properties - impact strength resistance and stiffness - has spurred the development of novel conductive blacks. The purpose of this paper is to introduce these novel conductive blacks (NCB*: see footnote at the end of this paper), which eliminate this traditional tradeoff and are especially useful in formulating conductive plastic compounds for