Mixing conductive composite particles (in our case: copper flakes) into a polymer matrix (in our case: LDPE) results in a polymer composite material that conducts electrical current. In comparison to pure LDPE polymer, the mechanical properties of the polymer composite change. The change of mechanical properties was correlated to the percentage of filler particles in the polymer matrix. We prepared poymer composites with different volumetric percentages (from 0 to 40 vol%) of copper flakes in the LDPE polymer matrix. In this thesis, we focused on the determination of hardness, elastic modulus and surface roughness, which we tested with the help of continuous stiffness measurement and ramped load topography methods. The findings are that hardness and elastic modulus increase almost linearly with the percentage of flakes added while the behavior of surface roughness is almost exponential.
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