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Progress in Organic Coatings xxx (2014) xxx–xxx

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Progress in Organic Coatings

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/porgcoat

The determination of critical pigment volume concentration (CPVC) in

organic coatings with fluorescence microscopy
Jinhai Wang, Hong Xu, Dante Battocchi, Gordon Bierwagen ∗
Department of Coatings and Polymeric Materials, North Dakota State University, 1735 Research Park Dr., Fargo, ND 58102, United States

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The critical pigment volume concentration (CPVC) in pigmented organic coatings is one of the most impor-
Available online xxx tant parameters in coating formulation (Asbeck and Van Loo [1]). It is usually determined experimentally
by tracing the change of those void formation-related properties with PVC or detecting the appearance
Keywords: of voids in micrograph. However, these methods often underestimate the CPVC value because of the
Critical pigment volume concentration non-uniform dispersion of pigment. As discussed by Fishman et al. (1992, 1993 [2,3]), locally poor dis-
Fluorescence microscopy
persion can cause local volumes in a coating film to have a local pigment volume concentration (PVC –
Voids
local volume fraction) that exceeds the CPVC, even if the global or bulk value is not yet exceeded. PVCs at
or above the global CPVC develop many voids, and so a possible measure of the CPVC is a rapid increase
in local voids. In this work, we report a novel method for experimental determination of CPVC. In this
method, fluorescent dye is used to mark the voids in coating layer and the fraction of fluorescent area
is obtained from fluorescence image. The area fraction, which is a measure of voids volume fraction, is
then plotted with PVC to obtain CPVC value. This method eliminates the influence of non-uniform dis-
persion of pigment. To illustrate the utility of this method, the CPVC values of various Mg-rich primers
were determined with this method. The results showed that a reliable and accurate CPVC value can be
obtained by this technique.
© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Metal-rich primers such as Zn-rich primers (ZRPs) [9–11] for

In coating industry, pigments are widely using in modifying
paint’s rheological properties, accomplishing the optimal esthetic,
hiding substrate or primer, achieving desirable anti-corrosion per-
formance, obtaining anti-UV ability to improve durability and
reducing cost. It has been found that coating performance closely
depends on the pigment volume concentration (PVC) in dry coating
film. Many coating properties, such as tensile, permeability, gloss,
roughness, showed an abrupt change at certain PVC that is defined
as critical pigment volume concentration (CPVC) [4–7].
The CPVC is one of the most important parameter in coating
design and formulation because the reduced pigment volume con-
centration () [5,7], which is the ratio of the PVC to CPVC, can
be used for predicting coating properties and interpreting coat-
ing film performance. Based on the dependence of film properties
on , guidelines of optimal  levels for different coating classes
are established [4,8]. With these guidelines, formulation of coat-
ing can be greatly simplified, saving bench work, time and cost in
developing new coating system.
∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: Gordon.Bierwagen@ndsu.edu (G. Bierwagen).
steel and Mg-rich primers (Mg RPs) [12,13] for Al alloys also
depend on understanding and control of CPVC effects. Control of
the particle-to-particle contact that exists at or above the CPVC is
crucial to the performance and design of metal rich primers. The
renewed interest of this lab in CPVC measurements as shown in
this paper and several others on Mg RPS is due to our interest in
improving our understanding and control of the performance of
such coatings [14].
Usually, a specific change of coating properties with PVC is
used to determine CPVC experimentally. By monitoring a partic-
ular property change as a function of the PVC, the CPVC can be
determined at the PVC value at which the property starts to change
abruptly [3]. Bierwagen and co-workers have given reviews of the
literature of the CPVC in 1975 [5], 1992 [6] and 1999 [15]. Various
properties, e.g. gloss, internal stress, open circuit potential (OCP)
[4,16], resistance, [5,17] impedance [18–20] and other electro-
chemical methods [21] and other mechanical properties [9,22] have
been reported to be used in CPVC determination. [Schematic figures
for many of these specific CPVC measurements that have been used
for teaching the CPVC concept at NDSU and have not really been
published are given in Appendix A. These schematics are based on
many of the citations used in this paper or references cited therein.]
Directly observing the appearance of voids, the general opera-
tional description of the CPVC seemingly agreed to by all authors

0300-9440/$ – see front matter © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.porgcoat.2013.12.010

Please cite this article in press as: J. Wang, et al., The determination of critical pigment volume concentration (CPVC) in organic coatings with
fluorescence microscopy, Prog. Org. Coat. (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.porgcoat.2013.12.010
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
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Nomenclature
ϕi volume fraction of specific solid phase i in a polymer
composite matrix, such as the phase volume frac-
tion of pigments in a coating polymer, ϕpig ; standard
material science notation
PVC pigment volume concentration in a coating film,
equivalent to ϕpig ; standard coating science nota-
tion
CPVC critical pigment volume concentration; the PVC at
which there is just sufficient coating polymer to wet
the pigments and fill the voids between pigment
particles
 the reduced pigment volume concentration –
PVC/CPVC
SEM scanning electron microscopy
EIS electrochemical impedance spectroscopy
OCP open circuit potential or free corrosion potential
Gilsonite solution tar-based staining solution used in drop-
in-reflectance (DIR) measurements
H(x) Heaviside step function, see Eq. (2) for definition or
Ref. [18]
ULAM ultra low angle microtoming
Coarseness standard deviation of the local phase volume
concentration of a dispersed phase from the global
phase volume concentration divided by the global
phase volume concentration (see Ref. [3])
cited above, would be a more straightforward way to determine
CPVC than most of the methods described above. According to the
original concept of the CPVC, voids begin to emerge when the PVC
exceeds the CPVC. Monitoring the point at which voids appear
in coating system should thus accurately measure the CPVC. For
instance, staining by Gilsonite solution has been used to detect the
presence of voids in coating system, as has “scrub resistance”, the
ability of a coating to withstand multiple “scrub” based cleaning
cycles [23,24]. When PVC is larger than CPVC, the coating would
be significantly stained due to the existence of voids. If one can
unequivocally identify a void in a SEM image, SEM can also be used
to study the cross-section of coating films at different PVCs to detect
the appearance of voids, as was done by Lobnig et al. [6,7]. The
CPVC value obtained in this way showed a good agreement with
that obtained from EIS measurement.1
However, all these methods suffer the same problem of under-
estimating the CPVC because they adopt the same concept that the
CPVC is the smallest PVC at which the voids appear. This is based on
the assumption that the dispersion of pigment in polymer binder
1
One issue not addressed satisfactorily by any author is the effect of the size/size
distribution of voids on the accuracy of a CPVC measurement. The penetration of
voids by a liquid stain is obviously proportional to the ability of the staining liquid
to enter a void, a process often judged to be controlled by the surface tension of the
liquid entering a void. In the case of using light scattering to characterize voids, the
wavelength of the light used is a determining parameter, indicating UV radiation
will measure a smaller void onset size than IR. In general, to the accuracy of the
measurement method, all CPVC measurements seem to give the same endpoint, but
with varying degrees of scatter. The statistics of endpoint determination has been
discussed in Ref. [17] where various CPVC measurement procedures are compared
in latex coatings. The sharpness of the endpoint is discussed in Refs. [2,3], where it is
shown to involve the uniformity of the particulate solid concentration distribution
in the pigmented coating. The use of the techniques of this paper in this regard will
be the subject of a future publication.
Please cite this article in press as: J. Wang, et al., The determination of critical pigment volume concentration (CPVC) in organic coatings with
fluorescence microscopy, Prog. Org. Coat. (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.porgcoat.2013.12.010
is uniform and therefore, the volume concentration of voids ϕv will
be above zero when PVC is larger than CPVC, as given in Eq. (1):
⎧
⎪
⎨ 0 if PVC < CPVC
1
ϕPVC =   if PVC > CPVC (1)
⎪
⎩ CPVC
1−
PVC
According to Eq. (1), voids only appear at PVC that is above CPVC
and thus, an abrupt change in ϕv or consequently in various coating
properties is expected at CPVC. So the lowest PVC that shows the
presence of voids is considered the CPVC.
This equation is discontinuous at the CPVC in a manner almost
exactly like the Heaviside Step function [25,26], often written as
H(x). It is defined as follows:

0 if x < 0
H(x) = (2)
1 if x > 0
In this notation, one can rewrite, using  = PVC/CPVC [5], Eq. (1)
as
1
ϕv = H( − 1) · (3)
1 − (1/)
However, it has been observed that in many coating systems
the formation of voids actually begins to occur below the CPVC,
as indicated by the gradual transformation of coating’s properties
starting at a PVC below the CPVC rather than an abrupt change
at the CPVC [6]. This caused the local fluctuations in the pigment
volume concentration caused by non-uniform dispersion of pig-
ment. Because the dispersion of pigment particle is not practically
uniform, the local pigment volume concentration may vary from
region to region [2,3,7]. In some local regions of a paint film, the
local pigment volume concentration may be larger than CPVC even
though the global pigment volume concentration is less than the
CPVC. As a result, voids may emerge in these regions even though
the global PVC of coating is below the CPVC. This also shows up
in simulations of particle packing that closely emulate packing in
paint films [27,28]. Hence, the experimentally determined CPVC
value is often underestimated and can be highly dependent on
the preparation of coating film. A method that examined the onset
and rapid increase of voids with PVC would give a more accurate
experimental description of the CPVC.
In present work, a new experimental method for CPVC deter-
mination is reported that satisfies the issues just mentioned. By
marking/decorating the voids in a cross-section of coating films
with a fluorescent dye, the appearance of voids can be clearly
detected at very high sensitivity in fluorescence images of coating
cross section. A quantitative analysis of the fluorescence images
is used to obtain the voids fraction. Based on the change of voids
fraction as a function of PVC, an accurate estimate of the CPVC can
be made. This method removes some of the influence of pigment
agglomeration and leads to more accurate experimental evaluation
of the CPVC.
2. Experimental
A series of Mg-rich primer samples were prepared by mixing
pure Mg or Mg alloy particles with an epoxy-polyamide system at
various PVCs. There were five different types of Mg particles (abbre-
viated as MRP-1 to MRP-5 later) used in this work. Pigment for
MRP-1 was from Reade Manufacturing company, Manchester, NJ;
pigment for MRP-2 to 4 was from Hart Metals Inc., Tamaqua, PA and
pigment for MRP-5 was from Ecka Granules GmbH, Fürth, Germany.
Methyl-ethyl-ketone (MEK) was used as solvent to maintain vis-
cosity for air-spray application. The formulated Mg-rich primers
were applied by air-spray on the surfaces of 2024-T3 Al alloy panels
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Fig. 1. Scheme of ultra-low angle microtome (ULAM) setup.
(3 in. × 6 in. × 0.05 in., Q panel lab, Cleaveland, OH), which were pre-
treated to remove the oxide layer and followed by hexane rinse to
clean the surface. All the primers were cured at room temperature.
The panels coated with Mg-rich primers were cut into
0.75 in. × 0.75 in. coupons for fluorescent dye staining. The coupons
were first immersed in 0.1% Rhodamine-B (Sigma, St. Louis, MO)
aqueous solution for 4 h followed by rinsing with de-ionized water,
then air-dried coupons for further sample preparation.
Low angle cross sections of the coating samples were prepared
by ultra-low angle microtome (ULAM) techniques. A coupon were
fixed on a customized low angle stage and cut by a Leica SM-2500
sliding microtome in horizontal direction. A schematic of the sam-
ple setup is shown in Fig. 1 and the process was described in detail
elsewhere [29]. Cutting at an angle ˛ away from surface plane yields
a cross-section width of 1/tan(˛) folds of coating thickness. This
means that with a small angle such as 1◦ , the width of cross section
can be nearly 60 times that of the coating thickness. Microtoming
slices of coatings have been used by several laboratories for other
analytical purposes [30] and the many references in the bibliogra-
phy of this paper. A more recent paper by this same author was
recently published [31].
An Olympus LM60 fluorescence microscope (Olympus Amer-
ican Inc., Center Valley, PA) equipped with U/B/G filter (Chroma
Technology Corp., Rockingham, VT) was used to obtain fluores-
cence images from the low angle cross section of fluorescent
dye-stained coating films. The fluorescent images were ana-
lyzed by using ImageJ software (National Institute of Health,
http://rsbweb.nih.gov/ij/) to obtain the area fraction of fluorescent
Fig. 2. Schematic of workflow of taking fluorescent images of coating samples.
Please cite this article in press as: J. Wang, et al., The determination of critical pigment volume concentration (CPVC) in organic coatings with
fluorescence microscopy, Prog. Org. Coat. (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.porgcoat.2013.12.010
3
area. Adamsons [25,26] describes the microtoming methods in
detail.
3. Results and discussion
The main idea of using fluorescence microscopy for determin-
ing CPVC is to use fluorescent dye to mark (or decorate) the
coating microstructures, particularly voids. It makes voids easy to
be detected with fluorescence microscope. The images obtained
by fluorescence microscope not only can identify the coating
microstructures distinguishably but also can be quantitatively ana-
lyzed by image process software to obtain information of their
spatial location and concentration in coating layer.
The workflow for determining CPVC is schematically shown in
Fig. 2. It consists of three steps: sample preparation, fluorescent
image collection and image process.
The first step is sample preparation. The purpose of sample
preparation is to obtain an observable sample for fluorescence
microscope that fulfills the two requirements:
(1) the microstructures of interest can be stained by chosen fluo-
rescent dye;
(2) the inner microstructures can be revealed for imaging by fluo-
rescence microscope, which is only sensitive to sample surfaces
or transparent samples. Therefore, a cross section sample of
stained coating coupon was prepared by immersing coating
coupon in aqueous solution of chosen fluorescent dye followed
by cutting with ultra-low angle microtome.
The fluorescent dye used in this work was Rhodamine-B in
0.1% aqueous solution. It can stain the polymer binder (epoxy-
polyamide in this work) effectively and also move into the void
structures of the coating and concentrate there as the water evap-
orates. At the same time, no diffusion into polymer binder was
observed. After drying under ambient lab conditions, a coating
coupon with the voids decorated by the fluorescent stain was
obtained. The surface of the coating was completely stained by fluo-
rescent dye and the more important thing is fluorescent dye can fill
the voids and stained the polymer binder on the wall of voids. The
dye does not preferentially concentrate in the bulk coating polymer
matrix. As a result, both coating surface and voids are stained, as
schemed in Fig. 2a and b.
Following staining the coating coupon was cut with an ultra-
low angle microtome (ULAM) to prepare a low angle cross section
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Fig. 3. Fluorescent images of MRP-2 primers at various PVCs. (For interpretation of the references to color near citation of this figure, the reader is referred to the web version
of this article.)
of coating layer. There are two reasons for using cross section of
coatings for measurement. The first one is that void volume fraction
is essentially a property of coating bulk but fluorescence micro-
scope is a surface sensitive approach. By using cross section sample,
the structure of coating bulk is exposed in the new section surface
and becomes accessible to fluorescence microscope. The second
one is that the interference from stained coating surface is elim-
inated because it is removed during cross-section preparation. It
has to be emphasized that low angle cross section is a necessity in
our work. In conventional cross section preparation, coating sam-
ple is cut perpendicularly to coating surface. The width of prepared
cross section across coating layer is equal to the coating thickness.
As a result, only a tiny part of coating layer can be explored from
this cross section. In contrast, using ultra low angle microtome, the
coating layer is cut at a small angle (e.g. 1–2◦ ) away from surface
(as shown in Fig. 2c). The width of obtained cross section can be
many time the coating thickness and across a large area of coating
layer. This enables one to sample much larger longitudinal area than
a cross-section prepared by cutting normal to the coating surface
and makes the results more statistically representative.
After ULAM, three coating phases are exposed to cross-section
surface: pigment, unstained polymer binder and voids with their
wall stained by fluorescent dye. Under fluorescence microscope,
stained voids wall emits fluorescence and forms the bright spots in
the image while the other two phases only give dark background.
Hence, the voids can be clearly distinguished with high contrast in
fluorescent images.
The second step is collecting the fluorescent images. This is
conducted via standard procedure in reflective mode with a con-
ventional fluorescence microscope. Rhodamine-B has an emission
maximum at ∼560 nm and exhibits an emission spectrum tail
to700 nm [32]. With a U/B/G filter, the fluorescent areas are shown
as orange spots in viewfinder and the images were taken by CCD
camera.
Fig. 3 shows a series of typical fluorescence images taken with
MRP-2 primers at various PVC’s. It can be seen that the three phases
in coating layer can be clearly distinguished: pigment in black,
polymer binder in cyan while voids in orange.
As expected, it can be observed that the amount of voids
increased with increasing PVC. At PVC of 27%, almost no voids
were detected. A few orange spots were observed in the image of
primer at 31%, indicating voids starting to occur in coating layer
Please cite this article in press as: J. Wang, et al., The determination of critical pigment volume concentration (CPVC) in organic coatings with
fluorescence microscopy, Prog. Org. Coat. (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.porgcoat.2013.12.010
between 27% and 31%. The volume of voids kept increasing as the
PVC increased higher. At PVC of 42%, voids seemed to connect with
each other and a bicontinuous network of voids formed.
In step 3, the fluorescence images obtained in step 2 were ana-
lyzed by ImageJ software to obtain the area fraction of the region
stained by the fluorescent dye. Since the fluorescent areas origi-
nated from voids, the area fraction of fluorescent regions can be
considered as a measure of volume fraction of voids and the plot
of the fraction of fluorescent region vs. PVC can be used for CPVC
determination.
In performing the image analysis to determine the area of
stained voids, a fluorescence image was split into red, blue and
green color channels. The image in red channel was selected for
the marker of void area because it provided the highest contrast
between voids and other two phases. After masking the image with
a certain threshold of brightness of emission, a binary image was
obtained and analyzed by the particle analysis module in ImageJ to
obtain the area fraction of fluorescing voids. Then multiple images
are analyzed from randomly chosen areas to minimize the statisti-
cal errors due to sampling. The final result of area fraction at certain
PVC shown here is an average of results from 20 to 24 images that
taken on the areas randomly chosen on a cross section. This method
was used in CPVC measurements described in an earlier publication
[33].
Fig. 4 shows the plot of the fraction of fluorescent region against
PVC with MRP-2 primer. From Fig. 4, it can observed that the area
fraction is almost 0 at 27% PVC, which is consistent with the obser-
vation from fluorescence image. A gradual increase of area fraction
is found at PVC between 27% and 34%, reflecting the influence
of non-uniform dispersion of pigment. Beyond PVC of 34%, the
increase becomes abrupt. If one examines Fig. 4* [By permission
from G.P. Bierwagen, R.S. Fishman, T. Storsved, J. Johnson, “Recent
studies of particle packing in organic coatings,” Prog. Org. Coatings,
35 (1999) 1–10], one can see the similarity to the theoretical predic-
tions of the earlier work of Fishman et al. and Bierwagen et al., of the
onset of voids in systems with non-ideal distribution of pigments
and polymer (coarseness = / 0) to the results of Fig. 3.
As mentioned before, ideally an abrupt increase of area fraction
is expected at CPVC, as shown in blue solid line in Fig. 4. But with the
influence of non-uniform dispersion of pigment particles, a gradual
transition onset takes the place at PVC around CPVC, as indicated
by the red dot curve in Fig. 4. Hence, if the extrapolation of the
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0.6 Table 1
CPVC values of various MRP system determined by fluorescence microscopy method,
as a comparison with value from OA measurement, value from EIS and value from
a modified model to correct the influence of particle shape [34].
0.5
Fluorescence EIS (%) Modified OA method
microscopy method (%) [Appendix A] (%)

0.4 MRP-1 40.4 36.9

MRP-2 32.6 30.8 33.4
Area Fraction

MRP-3 33.5 34.8 32.6

MRP-4 48.5 46.7
0.3
MRP-5 41.4 39.1 41.2

0.2
be noticed that this value is larger than the PVC at which voids start
to emerge.
CPVC From Table 1, it can be seen that the CPVC values obtained from
0.1
fluorescence microscopy method presented in this paper showed
good agreement with the values obtained from EIS measurement
(32.6, 0) (Fig. 5). They are also consistent with the values calculated from
0.0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 modified OA method. These consistent results indicated that the
CPVC determination with fluorescence microscopy method is suit-
PVC (%)
able for MRP coatings.
Fig. 4. Plot of area fraction of fluorescent area change with PVC. (For interpretation With the plot of change of area fraction of fluorescent areas as
of the references to color near citation of this figure, the reader is referred to the a function of PVC, the abrupt change in void volume fraction with
web version of this article.) PVC can be identified and therefore an accurate CPVC value can be
determined. This method eliminates the influence of non-uniform
pigment dispersion and avoids the underestimation of CPVC that
commonly existing in the other experimental CPVC determination
methods. When the onset of void-formation related properties is
used as criterion of CPVC, the CPVC may easily be underestimated,
as shown in Fig. 4* and other predictions [15]. This method has
shown promising results in determining CPVC of MgRP coating sys-
tems and is being applied other coating systems. Future work will
include the examination of the influence of pigment size, fluores-
cent dyes and other factors introduced by the various features of
this new test method.

4. Conclusion

A new method that using fluorescence microscopy for CPVC

Fig. 4*. Void fraction vs. reduced PVC (PVC/CPVC) for various values of “coarseness”
of pigment distribution in a paint film.
abrupt increase part is plot, its intercept with X-axis (marked as
red triangle) will give the accurate CPVC value and the influence of
non-uniform dispersion of pigment can be eliminated. Following
this analysis, the CPVC of MRP-2 can be determined as 32.6%. It can
determination was reported and the results of determining CPVC
of Mg-rich primer system are given. By measuring the voids frac-
tion of coating layer against PVC, a more accurate CPVC value can
be determined. The results agree with earlier theoretical predic-
tions of a more gradual onset of void occurrence below the CPVC
in non-ideally dispersed pigment/polymer systems [2,3] and show
the value of developing a method capable of making numerical
assessment of void fraction in coatings as well as clearly visualizing
the presence and distribution of voids. The CPVC values obtained
showed good agreement with those measured by EIS method and

10 10 10

MPR-2
AM60
LNR91
MPR-5
8 8 8
MPR-3
AZ91B
Log |Z| (ohm)

Log |Z| (ohm)

Log |Z| (ohm)

39.1%
30.8%

6 6 6
34.8%

4 4 4

25 30 35 40 45 30 35 40 45 30 35 40 45 50
PVC (%) PVC (%) PVC (%)

Fig. 5. Impedance modulus at 0.01 Hz (|Z|0.01 Hz ) of primer samples as a function of PVC and the determination of CPCV.

Please cite this article in press as: J. Wang, et al., The determination of critical pigment volume concentration (CPVC) in organic coatings with
fluorescence microscopy, Prog. Org. Coat. (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.porgcoat.2013.12.010
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calculated values indicating this method is reliable and successfully

applied to MRP system. Further extension of this method to other
coating systems is still ongoing and it could be developed to be a
high reliable method for CPVC determination.

Appendix A. Schematics of common methods for CPVC

determination

See Figs. A1–A10.

Fig. A4. Schematic of CPVC determination by measurement of permeability (see

Refs. [1,5,7,21]).

Fig. A1. Schematic of CPVC by light scattering/reflectance (see Refs. [3,5,23]).

Fig. A5. Schematic of CPVC determination by measurement of gloss (see Refs.

[5,23]).

Fig. A2. Schematic of CPVC determination by film density measurement (see Refs.
[2,3,5,6]).

∇
Enamel Holdout
G = Drop in gloss of coating over
film of varying PVC
-method affected
by pigment PSD +
viscosity of paint
∇
G
Gloss Drop
due to
Polymer
from wet
coating loss
into voids
PVC ( φpig )
Fig. A6. Schematic of CPVC determination by measurement of enamel holdout (see
Ref. [5]).
Fig. A3. Schematic of CPVC determination by film scrub resistance (see Refs. [5,23]).

Please cite this article in press as: J. Wang, et al., The determination of critical pigment volume concentration (CPVC) in organic coatings with
fluorescence microscopy, Prog. Org. Coat. (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.porgcoat.2013.12.010
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DIR ≡ Drop in reflectance upon staining with Film Elastic Modulus/Tensile Strength
black ink and subsequently wiping surface:
Ink cannot be removed from voids which form E = Elastic Modulus of Composite: film gets
above CPVC.
Loss of reflectance stronger and more rigid as φ pig increases,then
from black ink breaks easily in the presence of voids.
penetration into voids

DIR
Good Method. E
Accurate. Accurate Method.
Easy to Perform Difficult to Perform.

PVC (φpig)
PVC ( φpig)
Fig. A7. Schematic of CPVC determination by measurement of drop in reflectance
(see Refs. [4,5,6,23]). Fig. A10. Schematic of CPVC determination by measurement of tensile strength (see
Refs. [2,3,5,15,23]).

References

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Film Resistance as organic coatings, J. Appl. Phys. 72 (1992) 3116.
[3] R.S. Fishman, D.A. Kurtze, G.P. Bierwagen, Pigment inhomogeneity and void
formation in organic coatings, Prog. Org. Coat. 21 (1993) 387.
|Z| or R n vs. PVC [4] G.P. Bierwagen, CPVC (critical pigment volume concentration) calculations, J.
Paint Technol. 44 (November (574)) (1972) 46.
Resistance of Pure [5] G.P. Bierwagen, T.K. Hay, The reduced pigment volume concentration as an
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fluorescence microscopy, Prog. Org. Coat. (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.porgcoat.2013.12.010