Additives in UV-activated urethane acrylate polymerization composite coatings

Abstract

Thin UV curable coating systems is an important research field from the industrial perspective due to the improved environmental profile and wide varieties of characteristics. When used for short-term applications as coatings on natural nail for esthetical and medical reasons, the system may be manipulated to attain various properties, either desired or required by the manufacturer e.g. ensuring both excellent long-term properties (deformability, toughness, and good adhesion) and short-term properties (ability to be destroyed quickly after use). Performance of thin UV curable urethane acrylate composite coatings was investigated depending on the content of the additive. Nitrocellulose (NC), cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB), sucrose benzoate (SB), and silica were evaluated to determine their influence on unreacted composite characteristics (viscosity, suspension pigment stability) and reacted film characteristics (ultimate strength, elongation at break, surface gloss, surface micro hardness, and film adhesion loss). According to the tests performed all additives increase the modulus of elasticity. CAB and NC increase the elongation at break values, and strongly increase the uncured gel viscosity, what makes it inconvenient for application.