a) b - École Polytechnique de Montréal

In this work the conductance of the porous samples was converted to conductivity based on the
general following equation:
Equation 5-3.
Where G is conductance, A is cross-sectional area, l is length, and σ represents conductivity. As
void domains and HDPE have conductivity values of zero and 10 -15 S cm -1 , respectively, a
sample including substrates, multilayers and void volumes can be considered as a whole
conductive device with certain conductivity. In other words, a sample can be considered as an
ultra-porous PANI network. In porous materials, pore geometry (including the pore size and
distribution) plays a major role in the conductivity of the material(Solonin & Chernyshev, 1975),
as well as the perfection of the contact between the conductive material and the nature of the
material filling the pores(Montes, Cuevas, Rodriguez, & Herrera, 2005). A number of theoretical
and experimental models have been developed for applying porous-structure parameters, such as
volume and pore concentration to calculate conductivity(Lifshitz, Landau, & Pitaevskii, 1984;
Skorokhov, 1972). The detailed calculations for the estimation of conductivity using this
approach for this type of porous device is described in more detail elsewhere(Ravati, 2010).
5.4.8 Conductivity of the Conductive Porous Polymer Device under Loads
The conductive porous polymer device developed in this study is sensitive to applied
compression providing that the void volume percentage is sufficiently high. The compression of
sample B of 67 void % under a 10lb load pushes and forces the rods and walls of the substrate to
move inward. On the other hand, no deformation in sample C, which has a 60% void volume, is
observed. In that case the mechanical strength of the walls of the device is sufficient to resist
deformation resulting from the applied load. In the case of sample B, further contact between the
walls of the sample after compression results in an increase in the conductivity from 10 -8 S cm -1
up to 0.002 S cm -1 as shown in Figure 5-10. This allows for another control parameter to achieve
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