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Water‐borne coatings Increasing use of water‐borne emulsion coatings for original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and product finishes is requiring greater efficiency in coalescing‐aid solvents, an Eastman Chemical Co. representative said at a recent Chicago Society for Coatings Technology meeting. Eastman's Ronald K. Litton said emulsions designed for OEM and industrial applications have higher glass transition temperatures than emulsions used in architectural paints. That requires higher levels of coalescing aid to achieve good film formation. As a result, coalescing‐aid efficiency with a given emulsion system is a key factor, both from environmental (lower‐volatile organic compound (VOC)) and economic standpoints. Several properties should be examined when a coalescing aid is selected for water‐borne emulsion industrial coatings. The formulator should consider the evaporation rate and solubility parameter of the coalescing aid, along with its distribution pattern in a specific emulsion system. Those properties are important in defining the efficiency of a coalescing aid in terms of its ability to lower the minimum film‐forming temperature (MFFT) of an emulsion system. The coalescing aids also must be hydrolytically stable to provide minimum loss of efficiency due to ageing, Litton said. He showed several charts designed to assist formulators in the selection of optimum coalescing aids for emulsion systems. At the same conference, James T.K. Woo of The Glidden Co. discussed the grafting of high‐molecular‐weight epoxy resins with styrene‐methacrylic acid monomers, producing a water‐reducible copolymer. Grafting takes place at the aliphatic carbons of the epoxy resin, according to carbon‐13 NMR spectroscopy. The study was a follow‐up to a paper presented 14 years ago. Woo said recent research indicates that five grafting “peaks” were identified on a 400 megacycle carbon‐13 nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy instrument. The paper provided several theoretical calculation on grafting. Three of the graft peaks resulted from grafting at the secondary methylene carbons ‐CH2‐ and two resulted from grafting at the tertiary carbon ‐CH‐. The ratio of grafting at ‐CH2‐ to ‐CH‐appears to be 2.7:1 — lower than the 4:1 ratio of protons present on the aliphatic carbons that are susceptible to hydrogen abstraction leading to grafting. That indicates that the tertiary hydrogen is somwhat more susceptible to grafting than the methylene hydrogens, he said.