Sparc extends benefits to water based coatings

Sparc Technologies has extended claims of improved anti-corrosive performance from solvent based coatings enhanced with graphene towards more environmentally desirable water based alternatives.

The technology development company told investors that initial test work had demonstrated significant corrosion improvement in graphene enhanced water-based acrylic epoxy coatings which are experiencing strong market growth as alternatives to coatings which contain fossil fuel derived organic solvents.

Tests involved the incorporation of low dosages of selected grades of graphene compared to an unmodified control using two industry-recognised electrochemical measurement techniques.

“These results are the first evidence that Sparc has seen whereby graphene significantly improves the corrosion performance of water-based coatings.

“This extends Sparc’s reach into a new and rapidly growing area of the coatings market where there are clear performance challenges to address.

“It also complements Sparc’s flagship ecosparc product range.”

Coated panels were tested via two electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques within Sparc’s laboratory:

• In a Rapid Electrochemical Assessment of Paint (REAP) test graphene enhanced coatings showed slower ingress of water through the paint film to the steel substrate significantly reducing the disbondment rate
• And in Accelerated Cyclic Electrochemical Technique (ACET) tests graphene enhanced coatings showed improved coating resilience with significantly less blistering and no corrosion after six cycles of cathodic polarization (AC/DC/AC) as evidenced by visual inspection.

Sparc Managing Director Nick O’Loughlin said: “There is an increasing push from the coatings industry towards more environmentally friendly water-based products, however their performance has not been adequate for wide scale industry adoption in corrosive applications.

“Our results clearly demonstrate a significant performance improvement with graphene which has the potential to unlock significant growth in this developing area of the coatings market.

‘Pleasingly, these results have been achieved by leveraging Sparc’s proprietary knowledge and expertise working with graphene-based additives in the significantly larger solvent-based anticorrosion market and allows us to broaden our customer engagement.”

Picture: Sparc Technologies/ecosparc graphene-based additive