Synthesis and surface properties of microphase separated or nanostructured coatings based on hybrid and fluorinated acrylic copolymers

Coating materials characterised by intrinsic inhomogeneity or nanostructured morphology can display unique interfacial (e.g. surface and adhesion) and bulk (e.g. mechanical, thermal) properties, when heterophasic or self-segregating components are obtained by suitable design of the constitutive copolymers' structure. With the purpose of obtaining intrinsically photostable low-surface energy coating materials characterised by good penetration into porous substrates and variable response of the adhesive and polymer-air interface, fluorinated acrylic-based copolymers and water-borne acrylic-organosilane hybrids have been considered. For the latter, dispersed phase polymerisation procedures based on combined emulsion copolymerisation and hydrolysis-polycondensation of organosilane precursors have been adopted.