Optical Characterization of a Commercial Paint

Optical characterization in commercial paints helps to improve and optimize the fabrication process and to minimize the cost of the final product. The paint under study is elaborated with a polymer matrix and some amount of particulate inclusions, its main characteristics are good quality, homogeneity of white appearence and brightness. When dried it is transparent. We prepare echelled layers with different paint thicknesses deposited onto transparent and metallic substrates and measure its reflection and transmission for both colorimetric and angular variation of the incident light. The experimental results allow the determination of the refractive index and thickness. Correlation with the granular structure is treated with different models, the size and filling factor of the inclusions playing an important role.