Abstract
This work is an attempt to study the effect of weathering on various properties of a typical acrylic melamine clearcoat containing various loads of nanosilica. It was found that nanosilica caused an incomplete curing process of the acrylic melamine clearcoat, leading to a lower crosslink density and also less Young’s modulus of clearcoat compared to the pure clearcoat. Thermo-mechanical analyses showed that incomplete curing of nanocomposites induced post-curing reactions during weathering, leading to an increase of crosslinking density and Young’s modulus of nanocomposites. Viscoelastic studies showed that incorporation of nanosilica into acrylic melamine resulted in more plastic behavior and higher elongation at break of clearcoats during weathering. In addition, gloss retention, surface topology, and chemical structure investigations revealed that nanosilica particles enhanced weathering performance of clearcoats. This was explained by UV–Visible spectroscopy which confirmed the ability of silica to absorb the harmful incident rays, protecting the clearcoat against weathering degradation.
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