Oxygen inhibition effect on surface properties of UV-curable acrylate coatings

In past studies the oxygen inhibition effect on the UV curing of polymer coatings has been extensively studied with the focus on oxygen inhibition mechanism and photocuring kinetics. In this study, several advanced surface characterizafion techniques have been applied to investigate the influences of the presence of oxygen during UV curing on the network structure and surface properties of acrylate coatings. The surface techniques employed in this study include slow beam positron annihilation spectroscopy, ESCA, microthermal analysis and nanoindentation. O-2 inhibition is found to significantly affect the top one micron surface layer of the coatings in terms; of network structure and physical properties. The experimental results are in agreement with the proposed O-2 inhibition mechanism.