Hello everyone,

first I will like to get ahead of the jargon-confusion with all these abbreviations.

• Intrinsically conductive polymers (ICPs) also called conjugated polymers, doped polymers or simply conductive polymers are polymers that are in nature insulators but they are doped to cause the formation of high-energy orbitals in which electrons are loosely bonded to their corresponding atom. Charge movement within the material can be induced by the application of an electric or magnetic field.
• In contrast, electrically conductive adhesives are polymers, which are also insulating in nature, filled with metal (conductive) fillers in the micro- to nano-scale.
• Then we have the old-school inorganic semiconductors which are basically inorganic materials (such as.. surprise surprise ... silicon) doped to have an extra loose electron or a deficit, also called hole. This way we have a p-n junction with an in-built electric field that we can use to separate excited electron (photoelectric effect) with a proper applied voltage.

If I would study the electrical characteristics of a metal-ICP interface I would definitely use the physics of metal-semiconductor theory.

Now my question is. What are the differences between ECAs and ICPs in the sense of their electrical behavior?

I am interested in the electrical behavior of metal-ECA interfaces/joints but I do not know if I can assume or approximate such interface to a metal-semiconductor interface.

I know that within ECAs, electrons may be tunneling through the insulating polymer to "jump" from one filler to the next if the distance between the fillers is less than the mean-free-path of the electron. The other mechanism of transport is by direct filler-to-filler contact. What mechanism dominate depends on a lot of factors including filler geometry, amount of loading, etc. I would assume the mechanisms that dominates also matters when asking if I can approximate the electrical behavior of the joint to a metal-semiconductor type of interface or?

Thanks in advance for any little insight in this topic!