Test methodInvestigation of the peel test for measuring self-cleanable characteristic of fluorine-modified coatings

The self-cleanable ability of coatings is important to prevent or remove polluting fingerprints, dust, water and oils for a number of applications. Fluorocarbon polymers have been used to provide self-cleanable ability due to their low surface energy. The efficiency of fluorine-modified coatings has been evaluated by measuring surface free energy using a contact angle measurement. However, this method is not sufficient to define the polluting-preventive ability or removability of fluorine-modified coatings due to the amount of fluorine content.A peel test can be used to determine the self-cleanable characteristics of fluorine-modified coatings by evaluating adhesion between the coating surface and pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs). In addition, adhesion can be used to predict the amount of polluting-preventive ability or removability of coatings by comparing the peel strength of commercial PSAs. We designed fluorine-modified acrylic resins with different fluorine contents for a new testing method. Comparing the contact angle measurement with the peel test results, the peel test for the self-cleanable characteristic of coatings was more suitable than the contact angle measurement to predict the polluting-preventive ability and removability of coatings.