Studies on the chemical, physical and mechanical properties of high-solids clearcoats prepared from hydroxyl-terminated isophthalate-based oligoesters and a melamine resin

A series of high-solids (solvent-free) clearcoats was prepared from hydroxyl-terminated isophthalate-based oligoesters and the hexakis(methoxymethylol)melamine resin (HMMM). The oligoesters, which were used as binders, were prepared via a transesterification reaction of dimethyl isophthalate (DI) under various molar ratios R (=mol ratio diols/diester) with a mixture of 1,6-hexanediol (HD) and 2-methyl-1,3-propanediol (MP). Mixtures of the two diols of different composition Rd (=mol ratio HD/MP), were used as well. An attempt was made to investigate and correlate the chemical, physical and mechanical properties of the formulated solvent-free clearcoats to: (a) the amount of the cross-linker (melamine resin); (b) the curing conditions (time and temperature); (c) the synthetic parameters applied in the preparation (via transesterification) of the oligoesters (e.g. excess of the diols in reaction with the DI and the molar ratio between the two diols, the species of the Lewis acid catalyst). The properties of all the new formulated high-solids clearcoats were compared to those of a reference clearcoat and their cross-linking was correlated to their chemical structure and composition as well as to their Tg values. It was found that the R and Rd values applied in the synthesis of the oligoesters (binders) significantly affected the performance of their corresponding clearcoats. More specifically, the clearcoats obtained from binders where 3<R<4, combined an enhanced processability, higher values of non-volatiles (∼80%) (lower VOC content) and better or comparable chemical, physical and mechanical properties (e.g. impact resistance, gasoline resistance, mar resistance, flexibility and pencil hardness) upon comparison to those of the reference clearcoat.