Transparent and conductive

The Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology, Germany, has developed an alternative method to provide polymer surfaces with electrical conductivity during production or processing in a mold. The process can be divided into two basic stages, such as a highly porous conductive network being applied onto the inside of a mold in the first stage and the molded part being produced and the polymer precursor or melt being filled into the mold and cured in the second stage. The first stage also involves the production of a stable dispersion of carbon nanotubes (CNT) using water as the solvent and a surfactant suitable for the CNTs. The conductive CNT network is perfectly embedded in the surface without the need for further post-treatment after polymerization of the polymer precursor or curing of the polymer melt.