Electrical properties in polyester resins: comparison of the use of carbon nanotubes (CNT) and carbon black (CB)

Abstract

This work presents a comparison in the production of electrical conductivity polyester resins by doping it with two types of carbonous fillers; carbon nanotubes (CNT) and carbon black (CB). These polyester resins are used to obtain electrical conductivity powder gel coat. This type of coating reduces cycle times in the manufacture of composites due to the fact that significantly decrease curing time of the gel coat and eliminate secondary operations for the application of the final coating in the composite. Electrical conductivity with different fillers content and percolation thresholds obtained in the simulation phase are detailed. The results obtained in the simulation are validated at the pilot plant level taking into account the influence of the loading percentage on the resin processing. Finally, a comparison between the results obtained with the different percentage of CNT and CB is made. The results of the simulation show that the value of the percolation threshold is much lower in the case of CNT (about 3% in the case of CNT versus 35% in the case of CB). The experimental results indicate the strong dependence of the electrical properties on the production process obtaining variations of up to two orders of magnitude in the experimental results using the same percentage of CNT but different type of polyester resin.