Optical properties of carbon materials filled HDPE composites in THz region

The optical and electrical properties of several composites, formed by filling the high density polyethylene (HDPE) with similar amount of carbon black (CB), multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNT) and fullerene (C60), respectively, were characterized using a THz-TDS setup. It was found that the optical parameters and the details of their variation with frequency differ significantly for different kinds of carbon materials. The results are analyzed by using Cole-Cole formula of dipole relaxation under the assumption that carbon particles dispersed in the matrix behave like dipoles and contribute mainly to the dielectric loss in the THz frequency range. Fitting results indicate that MWNT and CB filled composites have a broader distribution of the relaxation time compared with C60 which possesses a nearly single relaxation time. Compared with CB and C60, MWNT filled composite possesses the larger relaxation strength due to its higher electron density and larger conductive clusters. The real part of conductivity for three kinds of composites all follows power law behavior with respect to frequency but the exponents are quite different. These phenomena may be related to the special properties of the fillers as well as their particulate structures, such as aspect ratio, particle size, and aggregate structure, etc.