Carbon nanotubes have very high mechanical strength, adsorption capacity and good electrical conductivity. When applied in the field of coating, carbon nanotubes can not only have high traditional coating properties, but also bring new functions to the coating. Therefore, carbon nanotubes are considered as a coating nanomaterial with great development potential.

Application of carbon nanotubes in coatings

1. Electrostatic conductive coating

Conductive coating is a kind of functional coating with the ability to conduct electrons and exclude accumulated charge. It is widely used in aerospace, electronics, petrochemical and some other fields.

In many conductive coating types, the common conductive fillers are silver powder, nickel powder, copper powder,etc,and carbon black, graphite, carbon fiber and other carbon structure conductive filler. Among them, the carbon nanotubes in the carbon structure filler has better electrical conductivity. Due to its light weight and low density, it is not easy to precipitate in coatings, so it has received more and more attention in the field of conductive coatings.

2. Composite coating for electromagnetic shielding

Similar to conductive coatings, in the electromagnetic shielding coating system, a certain amount of carbon nanotubes can be added to make the coating show electromagnetic shielding effects, which can effectively reduce electromagnetic interference after use.

It is found that by increasing the amount of carbon nanotubes in the electromagnetic shielding coating, the shielding ability of the coating can be gradually enhanced. With the same amount added, the smaller the diameter of carbon nanotubes, the more likely it is to contact each other during the formation of power grid chain, which is conducive to the formation of a good conductive network. Therefore, the shielding efficiency of coatings is enhanced with the decrease of the diameter of carbon nanotubes.