Structural elucidation of the graphene/polyurethane coating Pluto Conductive

Important results from the project

Provexa Technology is a surface treatment company that develops advanced functional coatings based on polymer matrices with functional 2D materials such as graphene and MXenes. The addition of relatively few amounts of functional 2D materials to traditional coatings affect their macroscopic properties, such as improving electric conductivity. However, the exact relationship between the preparation method, the resulting micro-/nano- structure, and the final properties is still poorly understood, and there is also a need to identify suitable techniques to investigate it.

Expected long term effects

Soft X-ray XPEEM and µXPS at MAXPEEM are valid tools to investigate carbon speciation, however they turned out to be incompatible with the low concentrations of graphene relevant for Provexa´s products. On the other hand, significant Ti inhomogeneities were detected with hard X ray XRF, indicating that MXenes form small clusters at the micron- to submicron scale, with size and distribution depending on process parameters. Such insight will help Provexa to optimize its functional coatings manufacturing process to achieve the desired macroscopic properties.

Approach and implementation

All experiments were carried out at the MAX IV Laboratory in Lund, on organic coatings containing either graphene or MXenes and with thicknesses ranging up to a few tens of microns. The XPEEM and µXPS analysis were carried out at the MAXPEEM beamline to investigate graphene distribution on the coating surface. XRF at the NanoMAX beamline was used to map Ti distribution in the MXene-containing coatings.