A simple Raman technique to measure the degree of cure in UV curable coatings

The curing behavior of four UV curable clearcoats was examined using spectra from a confocal Raman microscope. The disappearance of the C=C line near 1636 cm⁻¹ provides the signature for the curing of the samples, but quantification of the degree of cure by standard peak-fitting and baseline subtraction methods does not work well because of sample fluorescence, baseline shifts and overlapping peaks. A smoothed second-derivative processing approach overcomes all of these difficulties and provides a simple, fast and objective quantification procedure. Steep cure gradients through the thickness of the clearcoat, due to screening of the bottom of the clearcoat by both the UVA and photoinitiator, were observed. Cure gradients at the top of the clearcoat due to oxygen inhibition were also observed. The most complete cure throughout the film thickness was obtained with a mixture of standard and red-shifted photoinitiators.