Title: electrically conducting polymer composite
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - electrically conducting polymer composite
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.08798
Status: current

Definition
Composite composed of a non-conducting polymer matrix in which irregular powdered or fibrous particles of an electrically conducting material are evenly dispersed in an amount exceeding the percolation threshold for electric conductivity and so the composite exhibits electric conductivity close to that of the conducting filler.

Notes
1) Conventional rubbery polymers are mostly used as the insulating matrix and powdered metals or carbon black as the dispersed phase in commercialized conducting polymer composites.
2) Conducting polymer composites are extrinsically conducting polymeric materials since the matrix does not act as an electric conductor but only as a container for the active electric conductor.

Related Terms
- electric conductor: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/08796
- percolation threshold: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/08848

Source
- PAC, 2022, 94, 15. 'Glossary of terms relating to electronic, photonic and magnetic properties of polymers (IUPAC Recommendations 2021)' on page 26 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2020-0501)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08798/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08798/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08798/xml

Citation: Citation: 'electrically conducting polymer composite' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.08798
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
Collection: If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .
Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-06-29T10:02:23+00:00