Photocrosslinkable paints for crack-bridging applications and anti-soiling properties (renovation of building facades)

Abstract

Anti‐soiling coatings (ASC) for facades must ensure two major functions: substrate protection and decoration. They were investigated within the scope of polymer photochemistry in order to achieve surface crosslinking of the coating on illumination with artificial or natural light. This surface crosslinking, which is induced through admixture of a photosensitive system, permits ruling out the soiling of the coating, while remaining flexible enough to respond to the deformations of the substrates. The development of highly reactive photosensitive systems capable of crosslinking dicyclopentadienyl acrylate (DCPA)‐based acrylic polymer matrices (dissolved copolymers or latexes) led to test these systems on ASC formulations (dispersion paints). The various formulations were subjected to accelerated testing of the resistance to soiling, in order to investigate the efficiency of the different photosensitive systems.