To a defined polymer, coatings bring additional properties as diversified as, for example: antifriction, ageing resistance, anticorrosion, electrical conductivity, antifogging behaviour, self-healing paints and topcoats, oxygen barrier, carbon dioxide barrier, migration barrier, scratch resistance, controlled wettability, antistatic behaviour, antireflective properties, IR absorption or reflection, thermal dissipation, antimicrobial or antifouling activity, decontamination properties, superhydrophobic or superhydrophilic behaviour, chromophore…
Coating techniques are also very diversified from simple methods such as painting, soaking, spraying, powdering, dipping, extrusion, printing… up to sophisticated processes such as plasma torch spraying, Plasma Assisted Chemical Vapour Deposition, Ion Beam Deposition, Sputter Deposition, RF plasma deposition or Plasma Polymerization-Deposition.
Inorganic materials such as ceramics or silicon oxide deposited in thin layers bring completely new features of a mineral material but their deposition and the permanence of adherence are challenging problems. For example, ThermoHoldTM technology provides protection against excess temperature in racecars and SiOx coatings are efficient barrier material for gases and moisture successfully used for advanced packaging applications.