Fabrication and structural characterization of poly(vinylidene fluoride)/polyacrylate composite waterborne coatings with excellent weather resistance and room-temperature curing

Abstract

We report a simple method for fabricating poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) /polyacrylate (PACL) composite waterborne coatings with safe, environmentally friendly and low-cost characteristics. The PVDF/PACL composite latex with functional groups was synthesized by the seeded emulsion copolymerization of PVDF and multiple acrylate monomers. By adjusting the feed ratio among different kinds of acrylate monomers, the as-prepared composite latex could easily form a film at room temperature with no baking. In addition, the self-assembly film-forming process of composite colloidal particles and the surface microstructure & performance of the latex coating were systematically explored. The water-based composite coatings presented good adhesion to the substrate and excellent weather resistance, which was attributed to the contributions of PACL and PVDF. It is worth noting that the composite coatings also had outstanding organic solvent resistance and almost retained the original gloss after tolerating repeated high-intensity UV irradiations. The composite latex fabricated by the proposed method is suitable for protective coatings of various substrates.