Preparation of antistatic epoxy resin by functionalization of MWCNTs with Fe₃O₄-modified polyaniline under a magnetic field

Aiming at improving the surface antistatic property of epoxy resins by a low dosage of antistatic agents, a novel strategy was carried out by utilizing an antistatic agent with a magnetic material, functional multi-wall carbon nanotubes with Fe₃O₄-modified polyaniline (MWCNTs@PANI-SH@Fe₃O₄). Here, the MWCNTs@PANI-SH@Fe₃O₄ was evenly mixed, dispersed into the epoxy resin and did not form a conductive network in the resin matrix due to the less additive amount of the MWCNTs@PANI-SH@Fe₃O₄; in such a case, we put the mixture above in a magnetic field, and the MWCNTs@PANI-SH@Fe₃O₄ had directional movement along the direction of the magnetic field to the surface layer of epoxy resin. When the amount of the magnetic antistatic agent per unit volume increased to a certain extent, the conductive network was formed. The surface resistivity was decreased to 6.8 × 10⁸ Ω sq⁻¹ at 0.3 wt% concentration of MWCNTs@PANI-SH@Fe₃O₄.