Chemical surface characterization and depth profiling of automotive coating systems

Today's high performance automotive multi-layer coating systems, including original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and refinish system components, require very specific surface, interface and depth profile characteristics. The various system components (i.e. clearcoat, basecoat, primer, and electrocoat with steel substrate or adhesion promoter with plastic substrate) must be durable, compatible and integrate with each other to create systems that possess adequate service life performance. This review focuses on the various measurement technologies that have been applied in surface/near-surface and depth profiling study of these systems. Knowledge of composition as a function of locus enables one to more fully understand the relationship of chemical functionality, material distribution, and network architecture to product performance (i.e, chemical resistance, physical properties, mechanical performance and appearance characteristics). Some of the measurement technologies detailed herein are broadly available and some involve expertise/equipment that is available to only a few. Each of these analytical tools will be covered from the applications viewpoint. Hopefully, this will provide researchers insight into application of these tools in addressing their own characterization needs. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.