Aligned carbon nanotube coating on polyethylene surface formed by microwave radiation

Abstract Multifunctional carbon nanotube (CNT) architectures have been created on polyethylene (PE) surface by a microwave welding process. The continuous and aligned CNT films drawn from super-aligned CNT arrays can significantly absorb microwave energy and act as a network of nanosized thermal sources to locally melt the PE substrate beneath, leading to polymer wrapping around individual nanotubes. Uniform and highly conductive CNT/PE nanocomposite layer was formed without undermining the original alignment of the CNTs. CNT patterns have also been precisely fabricated on PE samples. The PE/CNT/PE bonds showed high interfacial strengths, which were affected by the duration of microwave radiation. With ultra-low content of CNTs introduced as antistatic agents, the dissipation of surface charges on PE substrate has been tremendously improved.