First PE Blown Films with Graphite Nanotubes Launched in China

It was just at the end of last year, that I blogged about Russia’s OCSIAL (U.S. office in Columbus, Ohio) getting recognition by the JEC Group at JEC Asia 2017 for Tuball Matrix—the first-ever single-wall carbon nanotube-based pre-dispersed concentrate that creates strong, conductive composites. The world’s largest manufacturer of single-wall carbon nanotubes has now announced that the first anti-static blown PE films containing graphite nanotubes have hit the Chinese market.

Produced by a Suzhou region manufacturer of packaging for electronic products, the new films contain just 0.008 percent of OCSIAL’s Tuball nanotubes enabling a surface resistivity of 10^9 Ω/sq to be achieved while improving the mechanical properties and preserving 90 percent of the light-transmittance level. 

According to OCSIAL, the rapidly growing number of electronic production facilities in China has increased the demand for high-quality ESD packaging. The result is that the Chines anti-static PE packaging industry has now become a pioneer in developing the most advanced technology for film production using single-wall carbon nanotubes. (These are also known as graphene nanotubes because each nanotube is an extremely thin rolled-up sheet of graphene).

Aside from a Suzhou packaging processor, several other Chinese companies have also successfully completed industrial tests of nanotube applications, and are about to launch their product lines of PE films containing Tuball nanotubes. 

According to OCSIAL, the standard organic anti-static additives used in PE packaging usually lead to an oily surface feeling and to conductivity that is only temporary. In contrast, graphene nanotubes allow PE packaging manufacturers to achieve permanent and uniform conductivity while also preserving light transmittance of over 90 percent. Also claimed is increased stress at break in the perpendicular direction by around 60 percent, which results in improved durability of the PE film. Further, the applications of graphene nanotubes (in the Tuball Matrix concentrate form) enable a standard clean manufacturing process without the powder or dust associated with using carbon black.