The Waterborne Symposium

Waterborne high-solid 3D HAPTIC coatings are enjoying a big market success in recent years.  Its main application field is athletic footwear.  Exciting multi-color effects on multiple 3D coating levels in combination of sensational touch effects and high performance features allow totally new freedom of functional design.
Now new photosensitive HAPTIC coatings are being introduced to the markets.  HAPTIC coatings are based on fully waterborne PUD resins with high elasticity, flexibility and superior bonding properties and are usually applied on textile substrates.  Based on nanoscale oxidized graphene particles, i.e., graphene oxide (GO) nanoparticles, highly photosensitive coating layers were developed.  The GO-doped HAPTIC layers show high transparency and are nearly colorless.  When the GO-doped coatings are exposed to natural sunlight or artificial UV light, the GO nano-layers start a chemical reduction process and dark black graphene nano-layers are produced.  Relatively large sp2 islands will be formed totally changing the absorption properties of the coatings and turning over time into dark black color.  By masking devices, the coating on athletic footwear could be partially exposed to UV light and design patterns could be created by selective UV exposure.  Furthermore, the GO-doped HAPTIC coatings could be further pigmented with standard pigments well known in coating industry or with iridescent special effect pigments.  During the time of UV exposure, creative color effect changes could be achieved changing the appearance of a surface over time.
Following the new mega trend of mass individualization of consumer products, these photosensitive coatings could open up opportunities for point-of-purchase individualization of athletic footwear and other products by using digital cut masking papers and UV radiation devices directly in the shop environment. Another option could be creating consumer products that will change color over time when used in outdoor sunshine environment.