Electrically responsive composite material, a method of manufacture and a transducer produced using said material

A composite material capable of transition into a resilient electrically responsive material for application in a transducer in which said resilient electrically responsive material is configured to experience a change in an electrical property in response to exposure to a form of applied energy, comprising:

• a flowable polymer liquid capable of transition into a resilient material;
• electrically conductive acicular particles that facilitate the conduction of electricity through a solid polymer by quantum tunnelling;
• and
• a plurality of dielectric particles dispersed between many adjacent acicular particles, wherein
• said electrically conductive acicular particles have a large dimension and a small dimension, said small dimension and the size of said dielectric particles being between 10 nanometers and 300 nanometers;
• and
• said dielectric particles consisting of dielectric material only and being dispersed separately from said electrically conductive acicular particles.

A method of fabricating a transducer comprising a resilient electrically responsive material configured to experience a change in an electrical property in response to exposure to a form of applied energy, said method comprising the steps of:

• applying a flowable polymer liquid that contains electrically conductive acicular particles and dielectric particles, said dielectric particles consisting of dielectric material only and being in a form that is separate from said electrically conductive acicular particles;
• facilitating a transition of said flowable polymer liquid to a resilient solid polymer to produce said resilient electrically responsive material, in which said resilient solid polymer has said electrically conductive acicular particles and said dielectric particles dispersed therein;
• wherein
• said dielectric particles are of a size relative to said electrically conductive acicular particles such that a plurality of said dielectric particles are dispersed between adjacent electrically conductive acicular particles;
• and
• said flowable polymer liquid is applied to a substrate comprising an electrode before said transition to a resilient solid.

A transducer having a substrate for supporting a flowable polymer liquid, a resilient solid material formed by a transition of said flowable polymer liquid such that said resilient solid material connects to an electronic circuit, wherein:

• said resilient solid material comprises a polymer material having semi-conductive acicular particles and dielectric particles dispersed therein;
• and
• said dielectric particles are of a size relative to said semi-conductive acicular particles such that a plurality of said dielectric particles are dispersed between adjacent acicular particles, wherein:
• said semi-conductive acicular particles are dispersed separately from said dielectric particles;
• said dielectric particles consisting of dielectric material only;
• and
• the resilient solid material is configured to experience a change in an electrical property in response to exposure to a form of applied energy.