Thermally Sprayed Carbon Nanotubes Reinforced Coatings – A Review

Thermal spraying coating techniques have lately emerged as very effective surface protection technology to apply protective coatings for corrosion and wear resistance applications. These coatings have gained more importance in recent past. Advances in powder and wire production have resulted in development of various types of surface coatings with excellent wear and corrosion resistance properties. Because of excellent mechanical, thermal and electrical properties of Carbon nanotubes, CNTs reinforced composite coatings are being developed for various applications, e.g. automotive, aerospace and sports equipment industry. It is observed that if properly deposited, these CNTs ceramic composite coatings can provide improved properties like wear and corrosion resistance. It has been found that CNTs composite coatings can be successfully deposited by thermal spraying techniques, and these coatings give better performance than conventional coatings. This paper reviews the performance of such coatings developed by various researches in recent past.