Improving the performance of waterborne polymer coatings

Waterborne polymer coatings have the potential to address the environmental concerns associated with solvent based systems. To improve their performance without using volatile organic compounds, researchers now propose a new approach based on reconfigurable covalent crosslinking that provides mechanical resistance and self-healing properties. The new waterborne polymer coatings are based on mixtures of aldehyde- and amine-functionalised polymer nanoparticles (PNPs) that take advantage of the reversibility of imine bonds in the presence of water. Different degrees of functional monomer incorporation (10 % to 40 %) allowed the researchers to balance crosslinking and interdiffusion during film formation, to obtain mechanically robust and solvent resistant films.

Mechanically robust waterborne polymer coatings

A clear structure-properties relation was assessed by following the formation of water resulting from amine-aldehyde condensation crosslinking, measured by differential scanning calorimetry. The resulting polymer coatings further show self-healing properties at room temperature, triggered with residual amounts of water and featuring high recovery rates of the mechanical properties. According to the researchers, the mechanically robust waterborne polymer coatings based in imine reversible crosslinking, featuring self-healing in mild conditions, offer excellent prospects for application in smart coating materials.The study has been published in Progress in Organic Coatings, Volume 180, July 2023.

Event tip

Bio-based systems are also the focus of the EC Conference Bio-based and Water-based Coatings on November 14 and 15 in Berlin, Germany. At the conference, you will learn about the latest developments in bio-based and water-based coatings.