Atomic oxygen erosion resistance of microcapsules silicone coatings on Kapton

Microcapsules with gelatin as wall material and silicone resin as core material were prepared by means of separation in water phase. Microcapsules-silicone coatings of atomic oxygen (AO) resistant was prepared by Czochralski method on the surface of Kapton. The erosion behaviors of Kapton without and with microcapsules-silicone coatings were studied during exposure in AO environment in ground-based simulation facilities. The results indicate that the Kapton undergoes dramatical degradation with an obvious mass loss and change of surface morphologies. The optical properties of Kapton also significantly degenerate with a solar absorption rate changing of 0.272 before and after AO exposure. The microcapsules-silicone coatings posses a good performance on the AO resistant with less mass loss and erosion rate and the Δα is only 0.071. Specially, the mass loss of the coating, whose mass ratio of microcapsules to silicone is 1:5, decreases to 2.3% of the uncoated Kapton.