Antistatic epoxy acrylate/graphene oxide UV-curable coatings with improved shrinkage and adhesion strength

This study presents a simple method for preparing antistatic UV curable coating based on graphene oxide (GO). For this aim, epoxy acrylate (EA) was selected as a UV-curable matrix and synthesized GO nanoplates were dispersed in the resin through solvent-mediated dispersion. Simultaneous crosslinking of UV-curable resin and photoreduction of GO nanoplatelets take place during UV irradiation. The effect of UV intensity and concentration of graphene oxide on the curing kinetics of UV-curable nanocomposite and reduction of GO nanoplatelets was investigated. The results show that the curing reactions of the UV-curable system are disturbed by GO nanoparticles to some extent (depending on UV intensity). They also show that the electrical resistance of the UV-cured EA/GO nanocomposites decreases during the UV curing process. It was found that the shrinkage of the formulations improved considerably with the incorporation of GO into the formulations. The adhesion strength of the cured EA/GO coatings to mild steel was also found to be significantly higher than that of EA coating.