REAL TIME CURING KINETICS AND CROSSLINKING EFFICIENCY OF UV CURABLE POWDER COATINGS

摘要

Ultraviolet curable powder coatings research published to date has focused mainly on chemistry development and coatings performance. Coatings performance is critical for commercial development and utilization. Our research focuses on understanding coatings performance relationships as a function of photo-DSC and DMA data. Photo-DSC provides real-time curing and conversion analysis by directly monitoring acrylate conversion via calorimetry. However, quantifying conversion alone does not provide information regarding propagation length or crosslinking efficiency. Photo-DSC in conjunction with DMA characterization provides a more complete picture of how the variables for UV PC affect short, mid, and long term coatings performance by verifying network formation. Although UV PC technologies offer growth opportunities for the powder coatings market, the complex curing process requires direct methods of evaluation to differentiate between basic performance and improper annealing or UV exposure. This research provides the basic information that defines the effects of annealing time, temperature, and UV exposure on coatings performance and network formation.