16 - Paints and Coatings

Abstract

Some paints look like solids or very viscous liquids when at rest in the container and become thin when stirred. They recover their original appearance when allowed to rest. These complex responses are related to the rheological properties of the material. Resistance to weather is an important performance aspect, which affects durability. This is critical for paints applied to the exteriors of houses and buildings, ships, chemical plants, agricultural implements, and cars. This chapter deals with the applicability of thermoanalytical techniques for characterizing paints and coatings. Generally, the basic chemical components of paint and coating materials can be considered the same regardless of the field of application. Considerable work has been published on the use of the thermoanalytical techniques for characterizing coatings and paints for many applications. However, these have not been extensively applied to paints and coatings for construction applications.