News Release

Researchers seek effective, fast, clean coatings

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Virginia Tech

A team of researchers based at Virginia Tech are working to develop coatings that will be "cross-linked" or hardened by the oxygen normally present in a room.

The research is being presented at the 220th national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Washington, D.C. Aug. 20-24.

Timothy Long, a faculty member in Virginia Tech's chemistry department, explains that the team is developing a thin film, 25 to 50 microns, that provides a protective -- scratch and chemical resistant -- coating. "It is a new polymer structure, based on epoxy-butene chemistry, for a new family of coatings that are relatively inexpensive," Long says.

The goals are not only that the product harden without requiring a special environment, but also that it harden quickly -- in less than two hours, and that there be no byproducts, such as odors or solvents.

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The research is being led by Yountai Yoo, visiting professor from Konkuk University, Seoul, Korea, who received his Ph.D. in chemistry from Virginia Tech in 1988 and is doing research at Virginia Tech while on a one-year sabbatical. Co-authors on the paper are Larry K. Johnson of Eastman Chemical Company, which is sponsoring the research; chemistry graduate student Anthony J. Pasquale, and Long. "Radical reactions of 3,4-dimethoxy-1-butene in the presence of a redox initiator system (Poly 147)," is being presented at 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 20, in the Grand Hyatt Hotel Independence Ballroom A.

Learn more about Virginia Tech chemistry research at www.chem.vt.edu. Specific information is available under the faculty member's name.

PR Contact: Susan Trulove
540-231-5646 strulove@vt.edu


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