**6. Conclusions**

The development of polymer coatings with carbon nanoparticles is now gaining a lot of interest. They present enhanced electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties that can be used to confer new functionalities, turning into smart materials, able to interact with the environment, responding appropriately to external stimuli. These new functionalities are possible thanks to the creation of an effective electrical, thermal, or mechanical network inside the polymer matrix, making it possible for their use for structural health monitoring applications, resistive heating by Joule's effect among others such us self-cleaning and self-healing.

### **Acknowledgements**

This work was supported by the Young Researchers R&D Project (SMART-MULTICOAT M2183) financed by the Comunidad de Madrid government and Rey Juan Carlos University.

**Author details**

**223**

and Silvia González Prolongo

*Smart Coatings with Carbon Nanoparticles DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92967*

provided the original work is properly cited.

Xoan Xosé Fernández Sánchez-Romate\*, Alberto Jiménez Suárez

\*Address all correspondence to: xoan.fernandez.sanchezromate@urjc.es

Materials Science and Engineering Area, University Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain

© 2020 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

*Smart Coatings with Carbon Nanoparticles DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92967*

doped with graphitic nanofillers, giving high electrical conductivity [72]. These coatings present high water contact angle and low sliding angle. In addition, they exhibit high wear resistance and excellent anticorrosion performance [73]. The presence of polymer matrix enhances the adherence with substrate and increases the chemical resistance. When the matrix is not hydrophobic polymer, the nanocomposite coating can be chemically etched (i.e., fatty acids such as stearic acid, palmitic acid, and oleic acid) in order to decrease the surface energy. This approach allows using very different matrices (i.e., acrylic resin, epoxy, etc.), looking for other advantages, such as superior adhesion, mechanical properties, low cost, etc., making it suitable for many industrial fields. Together with self-cleaning behavior, other related properties are commonly developed in smart coating based on carbon nanoparticles, such as antifouling, antimicrobial, anticorrosion, antisoiling, etc. Graphetic nanostructures hold antimicrobial and antibiofilm activities, although the involved mechanisms are not completely understood and accepted [74]. For these applications, other nanoparticles of gold, silver, copper, TiO2, ZnO, Fe2O3, and CuS, are anchored to the graphene nanosheets to enhance the bactericidal efficiency. Now, current efforts consist on developing membranes and films

*21st Century Surface Science - a Handbook*

with polymer matrix, such as chitosan, poly(vinyl alcohol), polyamides,

Joule's effect among others such us self-cleaning and self-healing.

desalination.

**6. Conclusions**

**Acknowledgements**

Juan Carlos University.

**222**

polyethyleneimine, etc., for applications in disinfection, gas separation, and water

The development of polymer coatings with carbon nanoparticles is now gaining a lot of interest. They present enhanced electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties that can be used to confer new functionalities, turning into smart materials, able to interact with the environment, responding appropriately to external stimuli. These new functionalities are possible thanks to the creation of an effective electrical, thermal, or mechanical network inside the polymer matrix, making it possible for their use for structural health monitoring applications, resistive heating by

This work was supported by the Young Researchers R&D Project (SMART-MULTICOAT M2183) financed by the Comunidad de Madrid government and Rey
