Canadian Finishing & Coatings Manufacturing Magazine November/December 2021 - 42

PAINT AND COATINGS MANUFACTURING: NANOTECHNOLOGY IN COATINGS
Left: Tuball matrix.
Below: Erie Powder Coatings'
products with nanotubes;
Black 10^3 ohms and Silver
10^3 ohms.
range of properties they enable in coatings, " says Sergey Zasukhin, OCSiAl Business
Development Director for Canada, Mexico, Central and South Americas.
Compatible with most engineering plastics and metal substrates, sprayable
electrically conductive powder coatings with graphene nanotubes are used in
electrostatic sensitive applications in ATEX hazardous environments, instrumentation,
medical, marine, aviation, and defense industries.
Siska says Erie has only been working with nanotechnology in coatings for " months " ,
prompted by a customer request for a conductive powder coating that could only be
attained by using carbon nanotubes.
" This is very new territory for us, " he says.
He sees nanotechnology offering performance attributes that can not be attained by
using a micro scaled system adding that the benefits offered are " niche " , where most
customers do not require the unique attributes offered by nanotech additives.
The challenges though, include limited development in this space and unproven
efficacy.
" All new products to market are new R&D projects with no historical expectations, "
Siska says.
OCSiAL has also had success with epoxy coatings for aerospace, transportation, oil
and gas, construction, electronics production, green technologies, and other industries.
The company says producers specifically note the ability of graphene nanotubes to
preserve the mechanical and rheological properties of the original compound thanks
to nanotubes' morphology and low loading rates. These parameters and the color of
the final product are usually sacrificed when using standard conductive additives, like
carbon black or carbon fiber, which require much higher loadings to target the same
resistivity level.
In some specific applications, nanotubes have also led to cost-reduction for coating
producers or end-users. For instance, electrostatic discharge (ESD) floor installers
can reduce the thickness of coatings and use less epoxy, while tank lining producers
can reduce the required number and duration of visual inspections of the conductive
coating, OCSiAL says.
" Almost all epoxy coating systems are now fully covered with graphene nanotube
solutions. Launching easy-to-handle nanotube concentrates for mass production
of coatings with standard industrial equipment and no changes in formulation has
significantly leveraged the mass adoption of nanotubes, " says Zakhar Bolshakov,
OCSiAL Vice President, Polymers.
As a new entrant to the nanotubes arena, Erie's Siska says the opportunities he sees
for products will be highly dependant on performance.
42
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" We only have experience with
conductivity, but we're certain there are/
will be other systems offering more widely
desired benefits. "
With nanotechnology in powder
coatings in its infancy, current product
options may be limited but the future
looks limitless. Siska agrees there is
an opportunity for nanotechnology
development companies to push further
into the development for powder
coatings and a largely untapped market.
More broadly desired performance
benefits such as surface profile/finish
modification, olio/hydrophobicity,
corrosion resistance, charge modification,
UV resistance, chemical resistance, and
more could all benefit from nano additives.
" We as coating manufacturers are
simply waiting for them to be developed " .
http://www.cfcm.ca
Canadian Finishing & Coatings Manufacturing Magazine November/December 2021

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