Process for enhancing the electrostatic chargeability of powder coatings or powders, and the use thereof for surface-coating solid objects

A process for enhancing the electrostatic chargeability of a triboelectrically sprayable powder coating composition consisting essentially of

• (1) an epoxy resin;
• or
• (2) a hydroxyl- or carboxyl-containing polyester resin;
• or
• (3) an acrylic resin;
• or
• (4) a combination of hydroxyl- or carboxyl-containing polyester resin and epoxy resin or a combination of (1), (2), (3) or (4) with each other, intended for surface-coating solid objects, which comprises homogeneously incorporating, by dissolving or dispersing into said powder coating composition, at least one salt-like, cationic compound of the formula (1) ##STR4## in which R.sub.1, R.sub.2, R.sub.3 and R.sub.4, independently of one another, denote hydrogen atoms, straight-chain or branched alkyl groups having 1 to 30 carbon atoms, mononuclear or polynuclear cycloaliphatic radicals having 5 to 12 carbon atoms, oxethyl groups of the formula --(CH.sub.2 --CH.sub.2 --O).sub.n --R in which n denotes a number from 1 to 10 and R denotes a hydrogen atom, a (C.sub.1 -C.sub.4)alkyl or acyl group, furthermore denote mononuclear or polynuclear aromatic radicals or araliphatic radicals, where the aliphatic, aromatic and araliphatic radicals may be substituted by hydroxyl, (C.sub.1 -C.sub.4)alkoxy, secondary or tertiary amino groups, acid amide groups and/or acid imide groups, and where the alkyl, cycloakyl, aralkyl and aryl radicals for R.sub.1 to R.sub.4 may be substituted by fluorine, chlorine or bromine atoms, X denotes a phosphorus, arsenic or antimony atom, where, in the case where X denotes an arsenic or antimony atom, at least one of the radicals R.sub.1 -R.sub.4 is not a hydrogen atom, and A.sup..crclbar. denotes the equivalent of an inorganic or organic anion, in an amount from about 0.01 to about 10 percent by weight into powder coatings.