Smart composite based on fly ash cenospheres and transformer oil with switchable electrical conductivity.

Fly ash cenospheres serve as an inexpensive filler for various composites. Coating their surface with metal significantly alters the properties of the resulting composites. In this study, aluminosilicate cenospheres receive a copper coating using a plasma method with magnetron sputtering. Based on these copper-coated cenospheres, composites are created, and their dielectric properties are investigated in a parallel plate capacitor cell under isotropic pressures ranging from 1 to 75 atm. Composites based on pure fly ash cenospheres exhibit pressure-invariant properties, including the dielectric constant and loss factor. However, for composites based on copper-coated fly ash cenospheres, an abrupt increase in electrical conductivity is observed as the pressure increases. Interestingly, significant changes in electrodynamics characteristics are not detected under the influence of anisotropic stress. The methodology tested in this work can be utilized for creating smart materials based on cenospheres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]