Summary: In this paper, we describe the use of artificial opals from polymer beads as effect pigments in transparent industrial and automotive coatings. For this purpose, we synthesized monodisperse colloids from fluorinated methacrylates by surfactant‐free emulsion polymerization. The fluorinated monomers, in combination with crosslinking, lead to a refractive index contrast, thermal stability, and solvent resistivity necessary for use as effect pigments. After crystallization of the monodisperse polymer beads, crystal flakes with iridescent colors can be obtained. The crystal flakes can act as effect pigments in various transparent industrial and automotive coatings. Due to photonic crystal behavior of effect pigments, color flops up to 100 nm are observed.Crystal flakes of CS‐7 as effect pigments in a transparent coating. The diameter of the tube is 5 mm.magnified imageCrystal flakes of CS‐7 as effect pigments in a transparent coating. The diameter of the tube is 5 mm.

Cover:The picture on the cover shows ''artificial polymer opals'', which can be used as effect pigments in clear coatings. Shown is an EM picture, a dispersion of the opaline flakes and coated steel plates.Further details can be found in the Full Paper by M. Egen, L. Braun, R. Zentel,* K. Tännert, P. Frese, O. Reis, and M. Wulf on page 158.

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The issue of self‐cleaning significantly gained popularity due to the work of Barthlott and coworkers on the so called “Lotos‐Effect®”. They found out, that the cleanliness of the Lotos leaves originates from a combined effect of surface topography and hydrophobicity. The symbol of the beautiful Lotos flower as well as the fascination of surfaces being cleaned without any manual activity, simply by a rain shower, has since then stimulated the fantasy of many researchers. Our vision is to copy this mechanism from mother nature and to implement it into coating systems in such a way, that conventional application techniques, e.g. spray‐coating, can be applied without the necessity of further process steps like e.g. soft lithography. Three different approaches will be presented in this paper. Roughness and contact angle measurements have been used to quantify the self‐cleaning properties.

This article reviews the development of a UV curable electrodeposition system. Tailor‐made acrylic functionalized polyurethane resins, which have been designed, are described and basic properties of the final e‐coat system are shown. In addition several fundamental studies have been performed in order to analyze as well the homogeneity of the deposition as the efficiency of the UV curing process.