Preparation and surface characteristics of low-temperature curing fluorinated cathodic electrodeposition coating

Fluorinated cationic cathodic electrodepositing (CED) resins were synthesized by copolymerization of several acrylic monomers including Zonyl. Water dispersible cationic blocked-diisocyanate (denoted as TId) was also synthesized from isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI), cationic triethanolamine (TEOA), and dimethylpyrazole as the cross-linker for the low temperature curing at 90–120 °C. The emulsion stability of the cationic fluorinated CED resin was improved by ionization of the cross-linker TId, showing a mean particle diameter of 140–150 nm and a narrow distribution. 0.5 wt% of curing catalyst dibutyltin dilaurate (DBTL) was enough to accelerate the curing reaction and the gel content of the TId cured fluorinated CED film was higher than 90 wt% after being cured at 130 °C for 40 min. The contact angle and XPS spectrum of the CED film demonstrated that the surface enrichment of C–F2 and C–F3 groups effectively reduced the surface tension of the fluorinated CED coating and its surface tension γsv is even lower than 15 mN m−1 for PTFE. The preheating of the CED film above Tg but below curing temperature promoted this surface enrichment of the fluorinated groups. Thermal fragmentation of the fluorinated side chains in the CED resins was successfully avoided due to using TId for low temperature curing.