Polyimide is a type of polymer with an imide repeating unit that has a wide temperature range, chemical resistance, and high strength. Chemically, polyimide is inert. Polyimides are chemically resistant to hydrocarbons, esters, ethers, alcohols, and fluorochlorides in general. They're also resistant to weak acids, although they're not suggested for usage in settings with high alkalinity or inorganic acid.
Polyimides with various functionalized surfaces can provide numerous performance benefits in a wide range of applications. Alfa Chemistry can provide unique functionalized surface coating services for polyimide materials. You may modify the surface qualities of nearly any polyimide-related product using our widely used and simple-to-use surface modification technologies. Choose to collaborate with us, and you'll be able to confidently modify the surface qualities of your products!
Extensive Surface Modification Technology Options
Alfa Chemistry provides customers with a number of polymer surface modification technologies that can be used to change the surface properties of polyimides by adding different functionalizations. The following are some of our surface modification technology possibilities, however they are not exhaustive. Please contact us for more technology.
- Surface Waterproof Coating Technology - We can imbue hydrophobic and oleophobic qualities into polyimide surfaces to make them highly water and oil resistant, thereby rendering them immune to nearly all liquids.
- Hydrophilic coating technology - By functionalizing polyimide surfaces, we can make them highly hydrophilic.
- Adhesion Promotion Coating Technology - We can increase the surface adherence of polyimide surfaces by functionalizing them.
- Particle Modification Coating Technology - Alfa Chemistry can improve particle behavior, minimize aggregation, and maximize cross-linking by functionalizing polyimide particle surfaces.
- Lubricant Coating Technology - We can functionalize the surface of polyimide substrates to reduce surface friction.
Chemically stable, optically transparent, and very durable, these nanoscale coatings can be created.
Learn more about our hydrophobic and oleophobic coatings.
Learn more about our hydrophilic coatings.
Learn more about our adhesion promotion coatings.
Learn more about our particle-modified coatings.
Learn more about our lubricant coatings.
Alfa Chemistry Coating Solution Cases
Case 1: Ceramic corundum wear-resistant coating
Alfa Chemistry used blast gas thermal spraying to apply a ceramic corundum coating based on Al2O3 on the surface of a modified tungsten dioxide-filled polyimide matrix to improve wear resistance. The corundum covering is 200 m thick and has a good level of adhesion. The corundum coating greatly increased the wear resistance of the modified tungsten dioxide-filled polyimide composite, according to the test results. The brittle-plastic fracture mechanism of Al2O3 ceramic corundum-coated polymer composites with the filler fragmenting and the polymer maintaining plastic deformation was discovered. Due to the presence of the corundum layer on the polymer surface, no evidence of wear was seen in tribological examinations.
Case 2: Sol-Gel Titanium Dioxide Coatings on Surface-Modified PI Film
The application of metal oxide coatings to polymeric substrates is a helpful approach. The creation of new PI/metal oxide hybrid materials is aided by sol-gel coatings on polyimide (PI) sheets. Because there are no effective functional groups for covalent interaction with metal oxides or their precursor metal alkoxides on the pristine PI film surface, surface modification may be required before coating.
Fig 1. Hydrolysis of polyimide (PI) (a) and schematic illustration of the process for titania coating on hydrolyzed PI film surface (b). (Hashizume M, et al. 2012)
Alfa Chemistry studied the adherence of titania layers deposited on PI sheets using alkaline hydrolysis as a surface modification method. The results reveal that treating the PI film surface with alkaline hydrolysis can significantly improve adhesion between the sol-gel coated TiO2 thin layer and the PI film surface.
Reference
- Hashizume M, et al. (2012). "Sol-Gel Titania Coating on Unmodified and Surface-Modified Polyimide Films." Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology. 62: 234-239.
