Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Progress in Organic Coatings, cilt.198, 2025 (SCI-Expanded)
This research aimed to develop a superhydrophobic unsaturated polyester resin for gel coat applications, hypothesizing that modifying the primary component, polyester resin, to be superhydrophobic would impart the same property to the gel coat. To achieve this, coating solutions were prepared using two different strategies. The first approach involved complementing resin modification with a condensation reaction. The second strategy involved modifying the polyester resin through simultaneous radicalization and condensation polymerization. The superhydrophobic, self-cleaning gel coat applications were applied using a spray coating technique. Subsequently, wettability tests, including contact angle measurements and self-cleaning performance assessments, as well as surface morphology analyses using SEM, AFM, and XPS, were conducted. Additionally, structural characterizations of the composite material were performed using FTIR, XRD, and TGA. The water contact angle of the unmodified polyester resin, initially 84°, increased to 173°, demonstrating the successful production of superhydrophobic polyester resin. It is believed that the produced gel coat will not only result in significant labor savings due to its self-cleaning properties and corrosion protection but will also reduce the use of environmentally harmful cleaning agents.