Effects of fillers on properties of automotive nanocomposite clear coats
In a present research, three different fillers including nano-alumina (NA), detonation (DND) and non-detonation (NDND) nanodiamonds were added to polyacrylic base automotive clear coats to improve the performance of the coating.
Both nanodiamond types were surface functionalised to improve their dispersion and hence strengthening capacity. Several laboratory and industrial tests were performed on the coatings to study the mechanical behavior and resistance of the coatings to chemical reagents. The results showed that addition of these particles can strongly increase the scratch resistance of the coating while the other aspects of the coating was not deteriorated.
Great potential of surface functionalisation
In addition, the results proved the great potential of surface functionalisation of DNDs over NDNDs on the performance of the coatings. The coating containing as-received DNDs and NDNDs showed scratch resistance lower than those containing NA however. However, the heat treated DNDs, unlike the heat treated NDNDs introduced a better scratch resistance in the coatings, considerably higher than the NA containing coatings.
The study is published in: Progress in Organic Coatings Volume 134, September 2019, Pages 33-39.
