Morphology Matters: Irregular and Spherical Polymeric Powders in Anticorrosive Coatings

Polymeric particles are widely used owing to their tunable size and surface functionality; however, their intrinsically irregular morphology often degrades powder sflowability, packing density, and compactibility, thereby limiting end-use performance. Herein, a rapid and efficient spheroidization strategy based on high-frequency electromagnetic heating (HFEH) is proposed to tailor the morphology of polymeric powders, with powder coatings employed as a model system. The sphericity of particles increased monotonically with heating temperature and residence time. Representative polymeric powders, including polyphenylene sulfide (PPS), polyamide (PA), and a hybrid powder coating, were transformed from irregular particles (sphericity = 0.65–0.69) to near-spherical ones (sphericity = 0.95–0.97), while their thermal and chemical characteristics were largely preserved. The resulting spherical powders exhibited a reduced specific surface area (1.51 to 1.43 m²/g), smaller pore size (3.9 to 3.5