Preparation of a novel infrared low-emissive coating from the Cu powder modified by the polyethylene wax

Cu powder was coated with polyethylene wax via the flux-capping method in hope to avoid the oxidation of it, so the increment of the infrared emissivity of the coating can be greatly reduced. The prepared product was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The infrared emissivity of the prepared material was measured by Infrared Emissometer. The influence parameters that will affect the emissivity of the coating were systematically investigated, such as the content of coated Cu powder, coating fineness, coating thickness and aging process. The results indicated that the infrared emissivity value of the coating was reduced after Cu powder was coated with polyethylene wax. The polyethylene wax/Cu composites presented a homogenous sheet structure when the content of Cu powder increased to 30 wt.%, and it has a lower emissivity. The infrared emissivity of the coating increases rapidly as thickness increases and becomes steady above thickness of 70 μm. The composite coating exhibits lower emissivity value and excellent physical properties at coated Cu content of 20 wt.%. The emissivity of the coating that was prepared from the modification of the Cu powder was decreased with the decrement of the grinding fineness and increased with the aging time. The emissivity of the coating that was prepared from the modification of the Cu powder is always lower than that of the coating that only composed of the Cu powder with the increment of the aging time. Therefore, it can be concluded that the anti-oxidation of Cu powder is greatly improved after it was modified by polyethylene wax, which results in a novel coating with long-run low emissivity.