Method for coating surfaces and use of the articles coated using said method

A method for coating a substrate, the method comprising the steps of:

• (I) providing a substrate;
• (II) optionally cleaning the substrate;
• (III) applying an activating coat on the substrate;
• (IV) intermediate drying of the activating coat;
• (V) rinsing the activating coat after the intermediate drying step, wherein when the activating coat is rinsed at least a portion of the activating coat remains on the substrate;
• (VI) contacting and coating the remaining activating coat on the substrate with an aqueous composition to form an organic secondary coat, the aqueous composition in at least one form selected from the group consisting of a solution, an emulsion, a suspension, and mixtures thereof;
• (VII) optionally rinsing the organic secondary coat;
• and
• (VIII) optionally drying the organic secondary coat;
• wherein the activating coat is formed from one or more anionic polyelectrolytes selected from the group consisting of polyacrylic acid, silane-modified polyacrylic acid, polyacrylic acid modified with silane compound(s), polyacrylic acid-maleic acid copolymer, silane-modified polyacrylic acid-maleic copolymer, polyacrylic acid-maleic acid copolymer modified with silane compound(s), polyacrylic acid-acrylamide copolymer, silane-modified polyacrylic acid-acrylamide copolymer, polyacrylic acid-acrylamide copolymer modified with silane compound(s), polystyrenesulfonic acid, polyvinylsulfonic acid, polyphosphoric acid, and mixtures thereof;
• wherein the aqueous composition to form the organic secondary coat has constituents which can be precipitated, deposited and/or salted out and which are anionically, zwitterionically, sterically or cationically stabilized, where anionically and cationically stabilized constituents in the aqueous composition do not adversely affect one another;
• wherein a dry film is formed on the substrate, the dry film comprising (i) the organic secondary coat or (ii) the activating coat and the organic secondary coat, and wherein the dry film has a thickness of at least about 1 μm;
• and
• wherein the coating is electrolessly applied to the substrate.