CHARACTERISTICS OF CARBON NANOTUBES AND HIGH-QUALITY COMPOSITES

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) possess significant advantages such as super-strong mechanical properties, very high aspect ratio, high chemical and thermal stability and unique electrical conductivity. CNTs are hence considered as the ultimate type for the novel composites. The development of the composites with CNTs was reviewed. Ni-based-CNTs composite coating was prepared by electroless plating, which had amorphous microstructure and exhibited much higher wear resistance over traditional composite coating. The advantages of composite plating to prepare metal-based CNTs were further discussed. In addition, a conducting polymer polyaniline-CNTs composite was synthesized by in situ chemical polymerization, which can be used as electrode material for rechargeable batteries and electrochemical supercapacitors.