In this investigation, the aging behaviors of polyurea coating exposed to marine atmosphere for 150 days were studied and the mechanism was analyzed. The influences on surface and mechanical properties, surface morphology, thermal stability behavior, as well as chemical changes evolution of the coating were investigated. By attenuated total reflectance fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), changes in the chemical properties of polyurea coatings before (PCB) and after 150 d (PCA) of aging were analyzed, and emphasis was given to the effect of aging on functional group change, the hydrogen bonding behavior, and phase separated morphology. The results displayed prominent chain scission during aging, such as N-H, C=O, and C-O-C and the hydrogen bonded urea carbonyl content showed a decrease trend. The relative content of soft and hard segments showed a significant change, which increased the degree of phase separation.
Keywords: aging mechanism; chemical properties; hydrogen bond; morphology; phase separation; polyurea.