110 Products and markets Polymer structures make automotive coatings shimmer like a butterfly Interview with Qingling Zhang, Technical Manager R&D at BASF Coatings BASF Coatings, together with Cypris Materials Inc., has developed a revolutionary method of creating color shades for automotive coatings. With the innovative use of polymer structures, the teams designed the color ZENOMENON, which recently won the prestigious Red Dot Design Award. In an interview with Qingling Zhang, Technical Manager R&D at BASF Coatings in Southfield/USA, we find out more about the development, challenges and future prospects of this remarkable automotive color. What innovative technologies and approaches were used in the development of ZENOMENON? Qingling Zhang: Usually, polymers are only used as binders in the production of automotive coatings. With our innovative concept ZENOMENOM, however, we use self-organizing polymers to create color. No additional pigments or colorants are used in the color defining layer, which is an absolute novelty. The effect is similar to the beautiful color observed from butterflies. What are the key features and benefits of ZENOMENON compared to traditional pigment colors? The polymer structural colors give rise to high chroma, which generates very vivid color. In addition, a color change effect, the so-called flop, is created. This allows the viewer to discover different color combinations depending on the viewing angle. The self-organized polymer forms layered structures during application. These individual layers not only create colors, but also the corresponding effect. What roles do sustainable materials and resources play in the development of the color? About 30% of this structural color layer contains polymer made from bio-based renewable raw materials. In contrast to normal color development using pigments, this method does not require any milling process to produce the color. Like all other polymers, the materials we use can also be dissolved in solvents. As soon as the sovents have evaporated, the special structures are created that allow us to achieve the desired effect. You use polymers by Cypris Materials Inc. from California. What are the key features of this material for the development of the color? The beauty of Cypris material is that the color can be tuned by the molecular weight of polymer. With shorter molecular weight, you can get blue color and with longer molecular weight, you can get red color. We can also achieve any color in between by mixing the blue color polymer and red color polymer, depending on the ratio of these two polymers. Our color ZENOMENON is just the beginning of the exploration of what color space can be achieved. There is a lot of more potential we can do with this material. This year, ZENOMENON was presented with the renowned Red Dot Design Award. What does receiving such an accolade for you and your team? It was a great honor to receive the Red Dot Design Award as it is a fantastic confir- mation of the work that we are doing here at BASF. The accolade highlights BASF’s leadership in creating innovative automotive colors and helps us driving this color concept further together with our OEM customers. To quote my colleague Mark Gutjahr, head of Global Color Design: “We love it that we got the Red Dot!” BASF Coatings http://www.basf-coatings.com Images: © BASF Qingling Zhang, Technical Manager R&D at BASF Coatings ZENOMENON’s unique color effect arises from self-assembled layered structures, reflecting light in the visible spectrum with a flop effect. ZENOMENON – Automotive color by BASF recognized with renowned Red Dot Award https://t1p.de/0060r incl. Video
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