Conductivity of crosslinked low surface energy epoxy coatings

A new and straightforward method has been studied to prepare crosslinked low surface energy semiconductive epoxy coatings. The low surface energy is obtained by adding a small amount of partially fluorinated bifunctional primary amine Jeffamine D230 crosslinker and the conductivity is achieved by adding a small amount of semiconductive nanosized Cobalt(III) phthalocyanine particles. The use of partially fluorinated crosslinker strongly influences the conductivity, the conductive particle network structure, and the network distribution in the coatings. Compared to coatings that are free of fluorine, variations in fractal dimension, percolation threshold, particle-containing layer thickness, and conductivity level are observed as the amount of fluorinated species is varied. These differences can be explained by (local) differences in effective Hamaker constant, viscosity, curing rate, evaporation of the solvent, and presence or absence of polymer matrix between the particles in the network. Our results suggest that other crosslinked semiconductive low surface energy epoxy coatings can be realized in a similar manner, but careful optimization of processing conditions is required to obtain the desired conductivity levels at low filler concentration.