Polymer Coatings

A Guide to Chemistry, Characterization, and Selected Applications

Gijsbertus de With

• Publisher: Wiley-VCH
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9783527342105
• eBook ISBN: 9783527806331
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Nanotechnology & MEMS
• Index: Technology & Engineering

A practical guide to polymer coatings that covers all aspects from materials to applications 

Polymer Coatings is a practical resource that offers an overview of the fundamentals to the synthesis, characterization, deposition methods, and recent developments of polymer coatings. The text includes information about the different polymers and polymer networks in use, resins for solvent- and water-based coatings, and a variety of additives. It presents deposition methods that encompass frequently used mechanical and electrochemical approaches, in addition to the physical-chemical aspects of the coating process. The author covers the available characterization methods including spectroscopic, morphological, thermal and mechanical techniques.

The comprehensive text also reviews developments in selected technology areas such as electrically conductive, anti-fouling, and self-replenishing coatings. The author includes insight into the present status of the research field, describes systems currently under investigation, and draws our attention to yet to be explored systems. This important text:

• Offers a thorough overview of polymer coatings and their applications

• Covers different classes of materials, deposition methods, coating processes, and ways of characterization

• Contains a text that is designed to be accessible and helps to apply the acquired knowledge immediately

• Includes information on selected areas of research with imminent application potential for functional coatings

Written for chemists in industry, materials scientists, polymer chemists, and physical chemists, Polymer Coatings offers a text that contains the information needed to gain an understanding of the charaterization and applications of polymer coatings.

1
Introduction

Materials always have been of crucial importance for society. The wide range of the presently existent materials provides a large variety of properties that have been put to full use for many applications. However, applications often require a combination of properties or, actually, different properties at different locations and times, dependent on the circumstances at hand. Hence, combinations of materials are important and, since properties at surfaces are usually required to be different from those in bulk, coatings have become an important branch of materials science.

1.1 Scope

For nominally single‐phase bulk materials, one can distinguish between inorganic, polymeric, and metallic materials. Furthermore, one has multiphase bulk materials, in which two or more clearly distinguishable phases coexist. If synthetic, they are usually called composites, but nature provides us with bio‐composites, such as wood (with cellulose acting as skeleton, hemicellulose as matrix, and lignin as binder). A similar distinction can be made for coatings. In principle, each materials type can be applied as a coating over any of the other materials type, which is then used as substrate. However, while inorganic coatings are typically applied on metals and polymers, and metals coatings are mainly applied on metallic, inorganic, and polymer materials, polymer coatings are applied on almost any substrate, including composites. Actually, many (if not most) coatings can be considered themselves as multiphase materials, as frequently several different layers are applied, with one (or more) of the layers containing a particulate filler. In this book we restrict ourselves to polymer coatings, irrespective of the substrate. Note that surfaces of almost all metals are covered with an oxide, so that polymer coatings on metals or oxide substrates contain rather similar coating–substrate interfaces. A further distinction can be made with respect to coatings properties. One can consider the mechanical properties, like hardness and strength, the aesthetic properties, such as gloss and transparency, and a wide range of so‐called functional properties, such as, a wettability or electrical conductivity. We will mainly focus on such functional coatings. Nevertheless, as the mechanical integrity and appearance of these coatings is of crucial importance, some of the mechanical characteristics and aesthetics are dealt with as well.

Furthermore, we will deal with the chemistry, physics, colloid science, and rheology relevant in coatings manufacture and processing, that is, we deal with coatings science and technology. This implies that we will cover complex interactions between all these aspects, and, hence, the order of presentation is to some extent arbitrary. Possibly superfluous, but it is useful to distinguish here between paint and coating formulation, a fluid or paste containing many (solid and liquid) ingredients that are applied on a substrate, for example, by brushing, rolling, or spraying, and coating, a cohesive, protective, and possibly decorative solid film that results from the application of the paint on a substrate. At different sections of this book, we will address either paint‐ or coating‐related aspects, depending on the nature of the concepts discussed. The sequence of topics and the in‐depth level of discussion that we choose for this book aim for clarity and easy intertwine of the different subjects and are based on several years of experience in teaching a course on this topic to master level students following a materials and polymers study track.

1.2 The Importance of Polymer Coatings

There are not many material applications in our modern society that are both so ubiquitously visible and usually unnoticed, as is the case with coatings. Some are used to give a good appearance to, for example, buildings, vehicles, and furniture without attracting the eye's conscious attention to their own existence; others are highly functional but invisibly embedded in devices, or just transparently covering other materials. Whether coatings are perceived as relatively simple such as, for example, protective layers or as a functional part of high‐tech devices, they are in many aspects playing quite vital roles in the quality of our life.

The materials chemistry of polymer coatings is distinctively different from polymers. The term polymer coating suggests that such a coating comprises predominantly, if not solely, polymers, but there are also many examples in which inorganic materials actually dominate by weight. What these coatings do have in common is an organic polymer matrix or binder, the continuous polymer phase holding all constituents together. Bulk polymer materials can have quite high inorganic filler fractions too, but in this case their use is more related to structural properties (hardness/modulus, flexural strength, flame retardation) than to surface properties (color, hiding power, gloss, and reflectance). Moreover, structural polymer materials are still not as highly filled as coatings usually are, implying that in coatings the ratio of the values of the interface area to polymer matrix volume is much larger. Consequently, the performance of a polymer coating is strongly dominated by three main types of interfaces: coating–substrate (bottom), coating–air (top), and binder–filler (internal). It is important to...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Dedication
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• List of Most Important Symbols and Abbreviations
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Polymers and Network Characteristics
• Chapter 3: Thermoset Resins
• Chapter 4: Basic Coating Formulations
• Chapter 5: Additives and Particulates
• Chapter 6: Application Methods
• Chapter 7: Physical–Chemical Aspects
• Chapter 8: Chemical and Morphological Characterization
• Chapter 9: Thermal and Mechanical Characterization
• Chapter 10: Rheological Aspects
• Chapter 11: Appearance
• Chapter 12: Electrically Conductive Coatings
• Chapter 13: Marine Anti‐fouling Coatings
• Chapter 14: Self‐replenishing and Self‐healing Coatings
• Chapter 15: What's Next
• Appendix A: Units, Physical Constants, and Conversion Factors
• Appendix B: Data
• Index
• End User License Agreement