Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2017, Polymer Engineering

Epoxides are widely used in the coatings industry as coating binders. Epoxide binders have several useful characteristics, which include the ability to react with polysulfide resin modifiers and thermosetting amide curatives. In order to improve the characteristics of epoxide coatings, various functional and non-functional additives and resins can be grafted or added to the epoxide binder. The first study involved the use of reacting polysulfides with epoxides and crosslinking with a polyamide to form films and coatings. While epoxide-polysulfides have heavily investigated in the literature for physical and fracture properties, a study investigating the fracture properties of epoxide-polysulfides at cold, ambient, and hot temperatures has not been attempted. The results indicated a toughening phenomenon at 5-10 wt. % polysulfides that led to enhancements in the fracture properties. Also, the addition of polysulfide content led to improvements in the flexibility and the impact resistance of the formulations. Self-assembled NAnoPhase (SNAP) particles are nano-scale functional sol-gels that were pioneered as corrosion-resistant surface preparations on aluminum substrates. No studies have investigated the use of SNAP particles as functional additives within epoxide-polyamide coating systems. SNAP sol-gel particles were formulated and added into epoxide-polyamide films and coatings. It was found that SNAP sol-gel particles were able to enhance the mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of the coatings. These studies are a novel discovery because the SNAP functional sol-gels are also able to act as a primer additive. In the last study, carbon nanotubes and magnesium were both added into epoxide-polyamide films and coatings systems, which were tested for mechanical and corrosion resistance properties, respectively. While existing studies have investigated the use of magnesium or carbon nanotubes as anti-corrosion additives in epoxide coatings, th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Mark Soucek (Advisor); Evans Edward (Committee Member); Karim Alamgir (Committee Member); Cavicchi Kevin (Committee Member); Miyoshi Toshikazu (Committee Member) Subjects: Aerospace Materials; Engineering; Mechanical Engineering; Nanoscience; Nanotechnology; Polymer Chemistry; Polymers