STUDY OF THE INTERFACIAL CHEMISTRY OF CHLORINATED RUBBER PAINT ON DIFFERENT SUBSTRATES AFTER THE CURING PROCESS

The interfacial chemistry of a highly pigmented chlorinated rubber pai nt applied over aluminium, cold-rolled and stainless steel, copper and zinc metallic substrates and poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) polymer sheet have been studied using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The r esults obtained by XPS were compared with those of bond strength measu rements. The XPS analyses reveal significant differences in the failur e mode. The chlorinated rubber paint on the PVC polymer sheet displays the highest bond strength value and on the zinc the lowest. Chemical changes, suggesting dehydrochlorination of chlorinated rubber paint in the paint/metal interfacial region, were only observed on the metalli c substrates. With the aluminium, stainless steel, copper and zinc sub strates, the curing of the chlorinated rubber paint causes the formati on of a highly hydrocarbon-enriched interfacial paint surface. In cont rast, the chlorinated rubber paint/PVC polymer sheet system shows no c hange in the interfacial surface composition. (C) 1998 John Wiley & So ns, Ltd.