Compressive Load Effect on Electrical Properties of Carbon Composite

Abstract

Contrary to its name, the "lead" in pencil is predominately made up of combination of graphite and clay or polymer, hence it can be considered as carbon composite. It has been proven that the more amount of carbon, the greater Young Modulus will increase and vice versa. Some researches on electric property of carbon composite also have shown that pencil drawn can be treated as a strain gauges and chemiresistors on paper. It means that in pencil's lead, the mechanical and electrical properties are related to one another. In this study, we applied a compressive load on pencil's lead and measured the effect on its resistivity. The results show that the resistivity will decrease while the strain will increase.