Abilene Christian University faculty Dr. T. Brian Cavitt, assistant professor of chemistry, and Dr. Perry C. Reeves, professor of chemistry, together with two former ACU students, Julie Anderson and Evan Hardgrove, were published in the March 2007 issue of the Journal of Coatings Technology and Research for their research on coating compounds.

The research used light to initiate chemical reactions that produce polymers, long chains of many small molecules put together. This type of research may have potential as an environmentally friendly technology that allows, for example, cars to be painted without the use of solvents that pollute the air.

“Basically, this research was a stepping stone for other work,” said Cavitt. “We noticed a peculiar interaction between two compounds and wanted to determine to what degree that interaction was taking place. If ultraviolet light hits the interacting compounds when they are dissolved in a particular chemical solution on the surface of some material, the liquid solution will solidify to form a hard protective coating.”

The research also involved using a computer modeling program or “computational chemistry,” to predict how the initial two compounds would interact, said Cavitt.

“This predictive capability is used extensively in the pharmaceutical industry but is very rarely used in the coatings industry because coatings processes are much more difficult to predict than the standard medicinal drug,” said Cavitt.  “This research was one of the first to attempt modeling any aspect of ultraviolet-cured coatings.”

Anderson began the research during the spring semester of 2003, and Cavitt, Reeves and Hardgrove continued her research in the summer of 2003. Today, Anderson is completing her Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi and Hardgrove is pursuing an M.D. at Texas A&M University.

Current ACU students on Cavitt’s research team will be adapting the computational chemistry section from the research for continued coatings research. Applications of these coatings could include wood flooring, optical lenses, electronics manufacture, dental materials, graphic arts and food packaging.