Synthesis of attapulgite/graphene conductive composite and its application on waterborne coatings

Attapulgite/graphene conductive composite is modified by a silane coupling agent of N -(β-aminoethyl)-γ-aminopropyltrimethoxy-silane (KH-792) to make conductive attapulgite uniformly load on the surface of the graphene. The samples are characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The results demonstrate that the conductive attapulgite is successfully grafted onto the surface of graphene. The characteristics of raw and modified absorbents are characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermal analysis, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The results show that the saturated mass fraction of the surface-adsorbed KH-792 silane coupling agent is about 3.0–5.0%. The electrical conductivity and mechanical properties of the conductive coating prepared from the modified conductive composite are investigated. The results show that the surface resistivity of the modified attapulgite/graphene conductive composite coating is smaller than that of the unmodified attapulgite/graphene conductive composite coating when the same amount of is added, and the mechanical properties are also greater than unmodified. As a comparison, when the composite material is 15% mass of the paint which can achieve a best performance.