Study of resistance to climatic factors of epoxy coatings modified by plant oils and their functionalized derivatives

Epoxy coatings while in-service are regularly exposed to various atmospheric factors including elevated temperature, moisture, solar irradiation, precipitation, fog and others. Those factors accelerate the processes of oxidative and photochemical degradation of epoxy materials which could significantly affect their service life. In the present paper the study of resistance of epoxy materials to climatic factors was carried out in the Artificial weather apparatus simulating external environmental activities by cycles of accelerated tests. It was proven that various types of modifiers exercise influence upon the mass growth of epoxy materials and consequently their sorptive processes. The analysis of investigated results has shown that in epoxy polymer exposed to moisture one could observe competing processes of the growth of cross-linking degree and its plasticization. It was stated that no exact correlation is observed between the degree of cross-linking of epoxy materials and their water fastness and resistance to climatic factors. The authors have proven that outside resistance of epoxy coatings is higher for epoxy compositions modified by soy oil and its functionalized derivatives. Epoxy compositions modified by rubber seed oil exhibited the maximum structural change caused by the impact of climatic factors.