Single wall carbon nanotubes find extensive application in composites and floorings, with much interest from Chinese manufacturers

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With the aim of meeting the increasing demand of the Chinese composites and flooring industries for highly conductive and reinforced materials, OCSiAl, the leading manufacturer of single wall carbon nanotubes, has entered into a partnership with the Chinese raw materials supplier Nanjing Leiqi by signing an agreement on the purchase and marketing of nanotube-based technologies and products in China.

TUBALL single wall carbon nanotubes, produced by OCSiAl, are often referred to as graphene nanotubes, as they are in fact a rolled graphene sheet. Due to their exceptional characteristics, single wall carbon nanotubes form an interconnecting conductive 3D network throughout the material matrix at extremely low concentrations, starting from just 0.01%. In contrast, to achieve the same conductivity characteristics, multiwall carbon nanotubes require a concentration 10 to 20 times higher, and conductive carbon black requires a concentration 100 times higher.

Nanjing Leiqi will commercialise TUBALL MATRIX and TUBALL COMP_E, which are cutting-edge concentrates containing TUBALL nanotubes. TUBALL COMP_E, based on low-viscosity resins that contain 0.7% of high-quality TUBALL single wall carbon nanotubes, was developed particularly for providing epoxy and polyester resins with high-level electrical conductivity. The revolutionary TUBALL MATRIX line of super-concentrates, which was specially developed for the composites and coatings industries, guarantees uniform volume resistivity in the range 10 8 –10 2 Ω·cm and also increases important characteristics of the material such as strength and fracture and abrasion resistance.

“Chinese manufacturers have always expressed high interest for the most revolutionary technologies and solutions. The recently held Shanhai International Floor Industry Exhibition has demonstrated once again that the flooring industry sorely needs a universal additive that will enable conductivity of floorings as well as maintain vivid colours and smooth surfaces. Nanjing Leiqi is one of the advanced companies that will make a leap forward in the conductive composites and flooring industries by introducing innovative single wall carbon nanotubes,” comments Aleksei Minakov, CEO OCSiAl China.