Making Alkyd Emulsion Paints: A Report on the Experiences at DSM Resins' Laboratories

Without doubt paint is a very complex system. After all, the two components responsible for the main properties are, by definition, incompatible. Pigment, hard, often highly polar, just does not mix spontaneously with the soft, highly non‐polar binder. To overcome this problem, grinding procedures have been developed. It is difficult to imagine an even more complex system than solvent‐borne paints, yet there is: water‐borne paints. In water‐borne paints not only are the non‐miscible components binder and pigment combined, but also both are suspended in a medium which neither likes: water.