a) b - École Polytechnique de Montréal

continuous structure of PEMA and HDPE with larger phase sizes. Therefore, a large part of the
blend is occupied by thick rods of HDPE. Since the PEMA phase, located at the interface, makes
some connected pathways, and PANI is distributed in the PEMA, in this case geometrical
restriction results in producing a few connected pathways of PANI in 30% PEMA. Because of
the constitution of small clusters of PANI in the PEMA intermediate phase, the resistance
slightly decreases. Increasing further the amount of PEMA results in a tri-continuous
morphology for 45/45/10 HDPE/PEMA/PANI, since with a sufficient content of PEMA, a
continuous phase of PEMA forms and consequently the small amount of PANI phase inside it
becomes continuous. As the continuous HDPE phase still occupies 45% of the blend, and due to
the formation of larger connected pathways of PANI, resistance reduces by almost three orders
of magnitude. Addition of further PEMA to the blend results in a preparation of 30/60/10 in
which the continuous structure of HDPE starts to convert to droplets. Due to the lower
occupation of space with HDPE, and the dispersion of PANI in a higher amount of PEMA, 10%
PANI distributes as droplets and connected pathways are hardly constructed. Increasing the
concentration of PEMA to 10/80/10 HDPE/PEMA/PANI results in the formation of
bicontinuous/droplet morphology, whereas a small content of HDPE causes a vast occupation
area of PEMA. Therefore, 10% PANI particles disperse in PEMA, showing a higher value of
resistance. Finally, for a binary blend of 90/10 PEMA/PANI, matrix/droplet morphology is
predicted, although still one or two connected pathway of PANI in PEMA can be found. As it is
observed, concentration and morphology of HDPE and PEMA affect the conductivity and
continuity of PANI, where the percolation threshold of samples with a constant 10% of PANI is
obtained at 35% of PEMA and 90% of PEMA in a HDPE/PEMA/PANI ternary blend.
In samples containing 20% of PANI, a similar behavior for small contents of PEMA with a slight
difference in the value of resistance is observed. At 40/40/20 HDPE/PEMA/PANI, tri-continuous
morphology is generated, demonstrating a sharp decrease of the resistance. The important points
are samples containing 20% PANI and 66.6/33.3 PEMA/HDPE and 90/10 PEMA/HDPE in
which, in contrast to samples containing 10% of PANI at these points, resistance has a low value.
As mentioned above, higher value of resistance at these points for samples containing 10% of
PANI is related to droplets of PANI distributed in PEMA, due to lack an insufficient amount of
PANI. On the contrary, for samples containing 20% of PANI, the concentration of PANI is high
enough to form a number of connected pathways of PANI inside PEMA, yielding the decrease of
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