Layered particle based polymer composites for coatings: Part III—Textured coatings obtained via lyotropic liquid crystals

Especially in the course of recent trends to reduce the number of layers of modern automotive coatings the resistance towards stone chipping is becoming an issue. Layered double hydroxide (LDH) based polymer composites are readily accessible materials which have demonstrated to be suitable to impart impact resistance to coatings.The present part of a toolbox of tailor made LDH assemblies describes an economically scalable approach to realize impact resistant coatings that are built on substantially ordered platelets. Unlike other artificial sandwich structured (nano)composites that normally are realized via tedious methods like layer by layer techniques, the parallel alignment of the LDH particles is obtainable with a single coating application process. It originates from an aqueous intermediate that consists of a novel lyotropic liquid crystal phase of polymer stabilized LDH particles.