Designing superhydrophobic and flame retardant photo-cured hybrid coatings

Abstract

The study investigates the effect of the addition of phenyl phosphine oxide (DAPPO) with acrylate functionality, polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) (acr-POSS) with acrylate functionality and 1H,1H,2H,2H-Perfluorodecyl acrylate (PFOA) on the superhydrophobicity and fire-resistance of photo-curable urethane-acrylate coatings. The addition of DAPPO to urethane-acrylate (50 wt.%) improved flame resistance. The additions of acr-POSS and PFOA improved surface hydrophobicity through increasing surface roughness by the addition of acr-POSS and decreasing surface energy by the addition of PFOA. The flammability and surface properties of the photo-curable hybrid coatings were evaluated by measuring limiting oxygen index (LOI) and water contact angle (WCA), respectively. Compared with the only urethane-acrylate-containing coating, the final hybrid coating had an increased water contact angle from 72.7°±2 to 147.2°±2 and increased LOI from 17,0 ± 0.08–24,3 ± 0.08. In the final hybrid coating, extinguishing occurred in less than 10 s.