Conductive waterborne silicone acrylate emulsion/carbon nanotubes composite coatings: preparation and characterization

Common organic coatings are hardly conductive and seldom applied in electromagnetic shielding fields. Thereby, the thermoplastic conductive nanocomposites, waterborne silicon-acrylic emulsion (SAE) merged with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and silica sols (Si), were prepared via co-blending method. Compared with neat SAE, the conductivity of composite latex (5 wt.% MWCNT and 1.5 wt.% Si) was raised nearly seven orders of magnitude, and the tensile strength and Young's modulus were enhanced to 366% and 177%, respectively. The contact angle was raised from 59 degrees to 84 degrees. The curing temperature was decreased by 12.8 degrees C. These enhancements proved that the addition of MWCNTs and silica sol could boost the electrical, mechanical, curing, heatproof and waterproof performances of SAE, which will be employed in high-property conductive paint areas, including the flexible and stretchable devices.