A wide variety of materials can be engineered to provide different degrees of electrical conductivity.

Materials such as copper, aluminum, and molybdenum are the most commonly used. Materials such as iron-chrome-aluminum and molybdenum-disilicide are used for higher temperature applications. Some oxide ceramics are used as conductors and semi-conductors for specialized applications. Conductive and non-conductive coatings that generally incorporate such conductive fillers are used promote or limit the flow of heat or electrical current into or away from the object that is coated. These hybrid coatings have many applications in a variety of applications and industries.

Conductive coatings are commonly used to shield from Electromagnetic Interface (EMI), for anti-static protection (aircraft paints), in printed circuits inks, to aid thermal dissipation (photocopy machine parts) and in electrical conductive couplings. The coating, depending on the application, may derive from a standard coating but is filled with a conductive material such as graphite, nickel, copper, silver or gold. More recently, the use of carbon nanotubes and graphene as a filler has imparted conductivity in coatings. A conductive coating may also be a thin film deposited by CVD or simply a doped thin film.