A new combined process based on MWCNT spray deposition and atmospheric pressure plasma jet fixing for large scale production of transparent and flexible conductive coatings

Many everyday life devices are characterized by the use of transparent conductive coating (TCC) technology. The leader product in the market of transparent conductive materials (TCM) is currently indium tin oxide (ITO), which is characterized by both excellent optical transparency and electrical conductivity. Since the last few decades academic and industrial researches are focused on looking for alternative solutions in order to overcome ITO´s intrinsic drawbacks: increasing price of indium, toxicity of tin, high production costs and fragility. In this work the possible use of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) as a coating material for substrates such as glass and polyethylene terephthalate (PET), with cheap and scalable deposition processes, and competitive performances has been investigated and characterized. The here proposed production procedure consists: in the dispersion of the raw MWCNTs, in a subsequent spray deposition of the solution over the desired substrate, and in a final fixing step performed by mean of an atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) deposition.