Dispersion of carbon nanotubes in nanostructured epoxy systems forcoating application

Abstract

This study about the dispersion of carbon nanotubes into an epoxy matrix can be considered as a firstapproach to investigate a potential industrial coating. In order to well disperse carboxylic acid-modifiedmultiwalled carbon nanotubes (a-MWCNT) in a commercial epoxy-based resin, its nanostructuring withan amphiphilic epoxidized styrene-b-butadiene-b-styrene triblock copolymer that also acts as surfactantwas carried out. In order to determine if coating performance is suitable for industrial applications, mor-phologies generated for copolymer-modified coating and the dispersion of a-MWCNT was characterizedby atomic force microscopy. Contact angle measurements, Taber abrasion testing and thermogravimetricanalysis were also performed. A tailor-made coating was developed with improved a-MWCNT dispersionand hydrophobicity due to the effect of block copolymer. System modified with 5 wt% of block copoly-mer and filled with 1 wt% a-MWCNT present the lowest value in weight loss in the wear test, whilesystems filled with 0.2 wt% of a-MWCNT showed increased thermal stability. Coating properties ana-lyzed depend largely on the amount of components and a-MWCNT dispersion level, thus adding newapplication possibilities to the coatings, while most of the conventional epoxy-coating advantages areretained.