Surface Energy Of Coatings Research Articles

Cohesive and adhesive properties of polycaprolactone/silica hybrid coatings on poly(methyl methacrylate) substrates

Organic–inorganic hybrid materials were prepared using the sol–gel process in order to improve the scratch resistance of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) substrates. Sol–gel solutions based on tetraethoxysilane and α,ω-triethoxysilane terminated polycaprolactone with two different organic / inorganic weight ratios (5 / 5 and 7 / 3) were applied and cured on the substrate. The final coatings consisted of interconnected nanodomains of silica and polycaprolactone, which increased in size and resulted into microdomains when the content of organic phase increased. The surface energies of coated and uncoated PMMA, and the cohesive and adhesive properties of the hybrid coatings were examined using contact angle measurements, and fragmentation tests, respectively. The surface energy of the hybrid coatings and their work of adhesion to the PMMA substrate were found to be similar, with a higher polar contribution at increasing silica content. In contrast, the strain to failure, cohesive strength, toughness and adhesion to PMMA of the coating with a 5 / 5 organic / inorganic ratio were considerably higher, compared to the coating with a 7 / 3 organic / inorganic ratio. These results demonstrate that the adhesion strength is the result of a series of complex phenomena that probably involves diffusion of reactants in PMMA and their crosslinking, as suggested by electron energy loss spectroscopy analyses, other than effects deriving from residual stresses and from the morphology produced during the formation of the coating.

The influence of substrate absorbency on coating surface energy

The surface energy of coating layers influences their final properties such as their ability to repel or absorb fluids. Recent work has shown that the substrate, due to absorption, can alter the surface chemistry of the top coating layer. However, the influence of substrate properties on coating surface energies is not reported in the literature. Three coatings, based on a pigment and a latex binder, are applied on three different substrates that differ in terms of absorption properties. The three coatings were also modified with a soluble polymer. Contact angle measurements of three different probe fluids were measured. These contact angles were used to estimate the polar, dispersive, and total surface energy of the coating layers. Surface energies were also determined for the latex and pigments. The contact angles and surface energies of the latex films and pigments agree with the expected results. Most of the results for the coating layers agree with the reported surface chemistry of these coatings. Large pigment systems on absorbent substrates have a high contact angle and low surface energy. These results agree with the expected results based on the surface chemistry reported in past work. The results for the fine pigment system had low contact angles and high surface energies and did not agree with the expected results. The contact angles may be influenced by the surface roughness of the coatings or the expected surface energy of a heterogeneous surface may not be a simple function of the surface composition.

Preparation and Properties of Poly(urethane-urea) Crosslinked Coatings from Perfluorocopolyethers and Polyfunctional Isocyanurates

Two model isocyanate terminated resins were synthesized by addition of perfluorocopolyether oligomers (M̄n ca. 1 000) with cyclic polyisocyanurates of hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) and isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI). The resins were characterized by chemical titration, gel permeation chromatography, FT-IR spectroscopy, and viscosity. The two resins, and some blends of them, were crosslinked through urea bond formation by exposure to atmospheric moisture. The resulting coatings were characterized by dynamic mechanical spectroscopy (DMS), tensile properties, abrasion resistance, adhesion, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and contact angle measurements. Phase separation phenomena and mechanical properties were related to composition and thermal transitions of both hard and soft phase. Adhesion (pull-off) was poor on inorganic surfaces like glass and aluminium (<1 MPa) and good on organic primers (>5 MPa). The use of organosilane adhesion promoters was successfully investigated. Surface analysis by AFM showed the formation of a chemically heterogeneous very smooth (on a nanoscale) surface. Contact angle determinations with water, diiodomethane and hexadecane were carried out. The total surface energy of coatings was calculated by the harmonic mean approximation and resulted typically low (16.0–17.5 mN/m) and unaffected by the coating bulk composition.

P[CF3(CF2)5CH2MA-co-MMA] and P[CF3(CF2)5CH2MA-co-BA] copolymers: Reactivity ratios and surface properties

This study aimed at reducing the surface energy of coatings by copolymerization of commonly used monomers with fluorine-containing monomers. Copolymers of 1,1-dihydroperfluoroheptyl methacrylate (FHMA) and methyl methacrylate (MMA) or butyl acrylate (BA) are prepared by low-conversion polymerization in solution. Using 1H-NMR data and nonlinear least-squares data fitting, reactivity ratios of these systems at 80°C are determined to be rFHMA = 1.31, rMMA = 0.76, and rFHMA = 3.15, rBA = 0.38, respectively. We assume that the penultimate unit effect plays an important role in these systems. Introduction of the perfluoroalkyl side chain lowers the polymer surface energy significantly; copolymers of MMA and FHMA show a reduction in total surface energy of about 50 % at a content of 15 mol % FHMA as compared with pure PMMA. The attainable reduction in surface energy is much larger than with, for example, Teflon. This is due to the preferential adsorption of the —CF3 groups of the fluoroalkyl side chain, if compared to that of the —CF2— groups of Teflon. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 79: 159–165, 2001