A sol-gel route to obtain scratch resistance automotive nano coating

Automotive coatings should withstand the environmental effects and other damaging sources like stone chips and blowing sands, keys, branches and fingernails. Nanotechnology has recently shown to be effective in obtaining scratch and mar resistance clear coats for conventional automotive coating systems. This work was an attempt to improve the scratch resistance of an organic solvent-based clear coat through the in situ production of silica particles using sol-gel processing. Tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and methacryloxypropyl trimethoxy silane (MEMO) were used as network former and network modifiers respectively. The ratio of TEOS/MEMO as well as the conditions for hydrolysis and condensation reactions was varied

Keywords:

Automotive Coating , Clearcoat , Nano , Sol-gel , Organic-inorganic hybrid coating