Anisotropy in electrical conductivity of two-dimensional films containing aligned rodlike particles: continuous and lattice models

Abstract

Numerical simulations using the Monte Carlo method were performed to study the electrical conductivity of two-dimensional films filled with rodlike particles (rods). The main goal was to investigate the effect of rod alignment on the electrical properties of the films. Both continuous and lattice approaches were used. Intersections of particles were forbidden. Our main findings are (i) both models demonstrate similar behaviors, (ii) at low concentration of rods, both approaches lead to the same dependencies of the electrical conductivity on the concentration of the rods, (iii) the alignment of the rods essentially affects the electrical conductivity, (iv) at some concentrations of partially aligned rods, the films may be conducting only in one direction, (v) the films may simultaneously be both highly transparent and electrically anisotropic.