Copolymerising wetting and dispersing agents for waterborne coatings
Additives are very crucial in any paint formulation, as they play a significant role during various stages, when incorporated in a small amount.
This additive exhibit unique molecular architecture which could be achieved by living radical polymerisation, i.e., ATRP, RAFT, and NMP.
Molecular weight was varied
An amphiphilic diblock copolymer of poly (ethyl acrylate)-b-poly (acrylic acid) (EA-b-AA) has been synthesised via reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) technique at three different molecular weights, viz., 5000, 7500, and 10,000 having an acid value of 130mg KOH/g of sample. Cumyl dithiobenzoate was synthesised and characterised as a chain transfer RAFT agent. Here, block length was kept identical and molecular weight of the copolymer was varied. The ability of additives to function as wetting and dispersing agent were evaluated by analysing their performance properties such as mechanical, optical, chemical, and rheological at different PVC’s. Polydispersity index (PDI) less than 1.6 determined by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) indicates good control during polymerisation.
The study is published in: Progress in Organic Coatings, Volume 79, February 2015, Pages 106-114
