A study on the electrical conduction in solid mixtures of PMMA and a molecular material

DC electrical conduction property of polymer poly(methyl methacrylate) (as host) mixed with a polymeric oxalate-based molecular material (as guest) in different weight percentages has been examined as a function of temperature and applied bias voltage to explore the effect of the guest on the electrical conduction properties of the host. The observed results showed that the room temperature conductivity of the solid mixtures decreases with increasing guest content along with an increase in activation energy. These mixtures are found to be the non-extrinsic type of semiconductors with exponential type of trap distribution. The activation energy and the pre-exponential factor values estimated following Arrhenius relation satisfied the compensation law for electrical conduction. Interestingly, the electrical conduction properties of the solid physical mixture are found to be identical with the melt-mixed analogue though they have morphological differences.