Characterization of Substrate Surface and Coatings Using Advanced Analytical Tools
For a durable adhesion, a pretreatment of the substrate is inevitable. The substrate often needs to be cleaned before a primer/coupling agent/plasma is applied. An extremely accurate and reliable characterization of the substrate surface at the nanometer scale is imperative. AFM, contact angle, ESCA and TOFSIMS are extremely useful techniques for combating contamination and providing quality assurance for reproducible pretreatment.
As a substrate is coated and cured with a urethane/epoxy system, for example, advanced thermal analytical techniques like MDSC, DM(T)A and DE(T)A are proving to be successful tools in ensuring the application and quality of the coating materials. An in-depth understanding of the structure property relationship with regard to mixing ratio and cure mode of the coating materials is a pre-requisite for their successful application and long-term durability.