Innovative frontiers in functional coatings: a conversation with Peter Greenwood
Peter Greenwood, Global Technical Development Manager at Inorganic Specialties at Nouryon, delves into the future of functional coatings, highlighting the role of colloidal silica in water-borne systems and the industry’s response to sustainability and regulatory shifts.
What substrate or application scenario will see the biggest rise in use of functional coatings over the next few years and why?
From a sustainability point of view, we aspire to extend the life of the material that the surface protection is supposed to protect. The coating that can deliver good protection, without degrading the properties, or even improve the appearance and longevity of the substrate will most likely have a prosperous future.
There are many substrates and technologies, hence there will be more than one solution to address these issues. We believe that colloidal silica in water-borne systems have an important role to play. In combination with other chemicals, under the right conditions, it is possible to obtain strong synergistic effects on the coatings performance in almost all systems that are currently under pressure from legislation.
There seems to be increased research activity in this area.
What do you see as possible reasons?
We see some strong technical trends in the functional coatings industry where we are working with colloidal silica today. Trends that are driven by sustainability and new regulations, which leads to an increased development of new solutions with improved environmental profiles and functionalities. We experience an increased interest in functional coating applications where colloidal silica is used such as cool roof coatings where energy savings can be made, thanks to improved dirt pick-up resistance. Another sustainable feature in demand is prolonging the coatings service life of exterior wall paints which can be achieved by increased dirt-pick-up resistance. Self-cleaning properties is also beneficial for reduction of algae and fungal growth of such coatings.
Another strong trend is the reduction of biocide/in-can preservatives of coatings leading to the focus on hygiene in production processes, selection of raw materials as well as rapid development of high pH paints such as sol-silicate paints where inorganic additives like colloidal silica gives additional functionalities. Other functional coating applications where we can see developments are non-stick coatings such as sol-gel ceramic coatings for non-stick cookware as well as more environmentally friendly coating systems for metal protection.
