Surfactant-free latexes as binders in paint applications
In a recent study, surfactant-free latexes stabilised with sodium styrene sulfonate as binders for exterior paints. The have potential to replace surfactant stabilised latexes as binders in waterborne coatings.
The leakage of surfactant from waterborne coatings is a matter of concern. Therefore, there is a strong interest in developing surfactant-free polymer dispersion as binders for waterborne coatings as this may accelerate the substitution of solventborne binders by the more environmentally friendly waterborne latexes. However, as the performance of the coating depends on the interaction of the latex with pigments and fillers and this interaction is controlled by the composition of the surface of the polymer particles, it is an open question if the surfactant-free latexes are adequate for coating applications.
NaSS binders present improvements
In a new work, surfactant-free latexes synthesised under industrial-like conditions using sodium styrene sulfonate (NaSS) to provide stability to the latex were used to formulate exterior paints and their performance compared with that of a commercial latex binder. It was found that for most of the application properties, the paints based on the NaSS binders present improvements with respect to the surfactant stabilised commercial binder.
The study has been published in Progress in Organic Coatings, Volume 162, January 2022.
