Dual cure (UV/thermal) primers for composite substrates—Effect of surface treatment and primer composition on adhesion

It can be concluded by the study of UV primer formulations on sheet molding compound (SMC) substrates that all studied formulation parameters affect adhesion. Moreover, the dual cure approach can result in acceptable adhesion of UV primers on SMC substrates if the coating procedure and composition are well designed. Adhesion of UV cure primers as determined by the cross-cut test is significantly improved in formulations containing solvent. This is a result of enhanced wetting and interaction of the solvent with the SMC substrate, confirmed by contact angle and gravimetric swelling studies. Furthermore, sanded SMC surfaces demonstrated superior UV primer adhesion. This results from the increased surface area of the topography, confirmed by CSLM and the exposure of more oxygen moieties such as pigments and silanols at the air-substrate interface as confirmed by AFM and XPS. The UV films have a higher modulus with increasing resin functionality and resulting cross-link density which correlated with reduced adhesion in formulations without an added isocyanate functional UV monomer. This indicates that cure shrinkage may play a role in the adhesion of UV cure primers and will be investigated further. Also, the added adhesion that an isocyanate functional UV monomer provides results in a significant increase in the glass transition temperature (T_g) giving a glassier film at room temperature.