Studying the Mechanical Properties and Structure of the Silver–Polyethylene Terephthalate Composite

Abstract—

Silver–polymer composite samples were obtained by the matrix synthesis method. The matrix was polyethylene terephthalate track membranes with pores of different diameters and concentrations. The matrix pores were filled by electrochemical deposition. The structure and mechanical properties of the composite, which consisted of the porous polymer matrix and silver nano- and microwires deposited into pores, were studied. The mechanical properties were determined experimentally by stretching the samples and building the stress–strain diagrams. The length and concentration of nano- and microwires filling the pores of the polyethylene terephthalate matrix were determined by scanning electron microscopy. The nano- and microwire lengths in the same sample are not equal; frequent crossings of the wires were also observed. The crossing probability and the number of nano- and microwire crossings were calculated using a previously developed procedure based on the single bond method. It was shown that the mechanical properties of the metal–polymer composite are significantly affected by the number of wire crossings and, at the same concentration of wires, by the wire diameter.