Electronic applications of multi-walled carbon nanotubes in polymers: A short review

Abstract

In today’s nano scale regime, a smart electronic device is attractive and has a primary role for majority of the world’s research community, particularly scientific and engineering community. Quasi one-dimensional carbon materials are an ideal material for flexible and wearable electronic applications. Significant progress has been made in developing electronics using carbon-based polymer composites. The incorporation of micro-materials and carbon nanomaterials in polymer has been attempted since the 1990 s and has shown a number of improved properties. In this review, the performance of the polymer composite with nanophase carbon materials is explored and their applications are discussed. In recent years, a wide range of carbon nanomaterials are used to transmit electrical signals for potential applications such as electronics, chemical sensors, mechanical sensors/actuators, and smart materials. Moreover, we have also discussed carbon-based materials, especially multi-walled carbon nanotubes, that are applied on a substrate using some printing technology for flexible electronics, and the progress of CNT-based RF antenna, textile, electromagnetic and interference shielding, and sensor applications has been reported.