Electrical Conductivity of Nylon 66

The D.C.-conductivity, absorption current and non-Ohmic behaviour of nylon 66 were examined as a function of the temperature. The existence of three distinct temperature ranges was observed in conduction; 1) below 97°C, 2) 97°C∼250°C ( E σ =0.9 eV), 3) above 250°C ( E σ =0.8 eV). Below 97°C, the conductivity followed the W.L.F. equation ( C 1 =15, C 2 =112), and the rate determining process for conduction seemed to be the chain rotation. Above 97°C, the mobility µ and the carrier density n were expressed as µ=µ 0 exp (- E µ / k T ), µ 0 ≈10 4 cm 2 /V sec, and n = n 0 ≈10 18 /cm 3 from the absorption current measurement. Carriers were supposed to be impurity ions, and not amide protons. The simple ion jump model was applied to the conduction process, and the ion jump distance λ was estimated to be about 700 Å. This jump distance also gave a value of µ 0 which was consistent with the result obtained from the absorption current measurement. On the basis of the estimates of activation energies, the amorphous region was concluded to be the conductive region.