Chemical Engineering April 2013 - 18

Global CoatinGs RepoRt
Newsfront
of scratching, such as brush bristles.
While existing topcoats have an elastic
recovery of around 70%, the BASF
hybrid nanocoating achieves 90%, the
company says, adding that the coating
can be applied using existing paint application
apparatus, and has been used
by carmaker Daimler for several automobile
models at its Bremen plant.
Nano agglomerations
While chemical makers like BASF are
integrating nanotechnology into their
coatings businesses, small solutionsbased
companies are applying their
expertise in nano-engineered coatings
to address complex customer problems.
CG2 NanoCoatings Inc. is an example.
As a way of imparting new functionality
onto materials, CG2's proprietary
coating platform is based on functionalizing
nanoparticles with specific chemical
groups for use in base coatings.
The company has made an important
advance with its method to prevent
nanoscale particles from agglomerating,
a pervasive challenge that creates
non-homogeneous environments at the
nanoscale and negates the potentially
useful behaviors of the nanoparticles.
" We make a trade with nature, " says
CG2's Castaño, " by minimizing the energy
of the nanoparticles with specific
chemical modifications, we offset the
thermodynamic instability of the tiny
particles, which would ordinarily cause
them to agglomerate. " In some cases,
researchers at CG2 chemically modify
commercially available nanoparticles
for a specific application. Rather than
selling a specific products, the company
applies its expertise and methodology to
various industry challenges.
Corrosion and abrasion
Two cross-industry issues where nanocoatings
are poised to have an impact
are resistance to corrosion and abrasion.
DuraSeal is one company that
is marketing a nanocoating in this
area. The company has developed a
corrosion-resistant nanoscale coating
that can be applied to metal surfaces,
such as pipes, pump assemblies, well
casing, valves, fittings and others as
an alternative to fusion-bonded epoxy
coatings. The coating is designed for
use in hostile environments, including
H2S, HCl, H2SO4, brines, CO2 and biT
he
Global Market Analysis Report for
the Paint and Coatings Industry (3rd
ed.) was sponsored by the International
Paint and Printing Ink Council (IPPIC)
and was assembled by analysts at Orr &
Boss. The following represent a selection
of the points made in the report.
* The global paint and coatings industry
took in $106.1 billion in revenue in
2011 on a volume of 33.1 billion liters
of product, the report estimates.
* The decorative-coatings market segment
dominates, with 56% of the volume sold
and 44% of the value. Other coatings
market segments include general industrial
(10% by value), auto OEM coatings
(8% of value); powder coatings 8%;
wood coatings (6%) and others.
* The report forecasts growth for the
global coatings market to $144 billion
carbonates across a wide temperature
range. To date, DuraSeal has coated
more than five million feet of pipe,
primarily tubulars and rods, and has
seen performance levels improve by
200-500% or more, the company says.
DuraSeal's highly hydrophobic coating
depends on reactive nanoscale silicon
particles forming a cross-linked
barrier at the surface. The coating
forms covalent bonds with the metal
substrate and forms a glass-like surface
that withstands corrosive substances
and has abrasion-resistant
hardness. Further, the surface's relative
smoothness can reduce frictional
losses, the company says.
" Once you get down to the nanoscale
level, conventional coatings are not
able to completely fill in all the crevices
of an irregular metal surface, " explains
DuraSeal's Jack Angel. " Nanoscale
particles in these coatings can
fit into all those spaces on the surface,
forming a hydrophobic, cross-linked
barrier film. "
The method of application is just as
important as the engineering of the
coating itself, Angel notes. " We have
seen more uptake of our technology
since we have focused the same attention
and effort on improving application
techniques and production
processes - including pre-cleaning of
metal surfaces to minimize dust particles,
and adjusting coating thickness
and rotational speed of the applicator
- as we do on the coating itself. "
Dust particles, can weaken the bond
between coating and substrate.
In DuraSeal coating, a thermal process
initiates the interaction between
the coating and the free ions of iron
18 ChemiCal engineering www.Che.Com april 2013
in projected revenue in 2016.
* The global coatings industry has become
increasingly consolidated over the past
two decades, and the trend toward consolidation
will continue, the report says
* Coatings demand tends to follow overall
economic activity - a strong correlation
exists between gross domestic product
(GDP) per capita and coatings demand.
* Migration away from solvent-based
coatings to water-based coatings has
largely happened already for the decorative
paint segment, but the transition is
still occurring in the industrial coatings
market segment. Often, the move there
is toward high-solids, solvent-based
technologies and powder coatings.
* End-use segments for coatings are diverse
and fragmented compared with
other industries.
❏
within the surface metal. Combined
with the penetration of the nanoparticles
into the surface irregularities of
the metal, the resulting bond of coating
to substrate is strong.
Plasma for nanocoatings
Several companies are looking at
coating-application methods as a way
to help engineer surface properties at
the nanoscale. One significant area of
development is in modifying plasmaenhanced
chemical vapor deposition
(PECVD) processes to allow improved
control over nanostructure. PECVD deposits
thin films onto solid substrates
from molecules in the gas phase by
generating plasmas with electrical
discharges. Among the challenges of
traditional PECVD is that the continuous
plasma-generating discharge can
erode newly deposited coating material,
as well as underlying substrate.
A modified version of PECVD developed
by Aeonclad Coatings (Austin,
Tex.; www.aeonclad.com) is aimed
at creating a gentler environment for
building a nanocoating. The Aeonclad
method avoids surface ablation by
using pulsed discharges, rather than
continuous. This approach allows fine
control over the surface composition
and thickness (Figure 2).
" By carefully controlling the pulse
length, the pulse power, the pressure
of the vacuum chamber and the type of
vapor, we can put down a surface gently,
without ablating the surface, " says
Tony Taylor, president of Aeonclad.
The pulsed radio-frequency plasma
technique also allows the company
to engineer surfaces by incorporating
different chemical functional groups
http://www.aeonclad.com http://www.Che.Com
Chemical Engineering April 2013

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