Eco-friendly waterborne-emulsifier for solid epoxy resins
Worldwide environmental limits on emissions and regulatory requirements are driving the development of water-based coating technologies. Against this backdrop, chemical firm Solvay has developed Reactsurf 0092 an alkylphenol ethoxylates-free (APE) and non-ionic reactive water-based emulsifier for solid epoxy resins mainly for use in industrial coatings and paints or binders.
Solvay’s Reactsurf 0092 technology allows for the formulation of high-performance waterborne epoxy-based coatings that can match or exceed that of solvent-based (SB) coatings but with a lower level of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Solvay adds that it is continuously developing and supplying products to meet the sustainable development challenges and regulatory requirements its customers are facing.
The new environmentally and processing friendly emulsifier offers easy handling by combining both characteristic external and internal emulsification phases with no additional chemical modification required, says Solvay.
“Solvay’s Reactsurf 0092 emulsifier incorporates a highly reactive functional cross-linking group, a perfect balance and synergy between emulsification and epoxidation to achieve a highly reactive emulsifier,” said Rong Er Lin, Research & Innovation Manager, Solvay Novecare Coatings Asia-Pacific. “This offers good particle size control for optimum emulsion coalescence and consistency without reduction in strength and provides excellent application performance and emulsion stability of paints and coatings.”
Waterborne epoxy emulsions that incorporate Solvay’s Reactsurf 0092 are said to exhibit freeze-thaw (F/T) resistance and are still flowable under -10°C (14°F) at up to 5 F/T cycles. Results of salt spray tests (ASTM B-117) on cold steel rolled (CRS) plates coated with epoxy emulsion paint with both high and low pigment volume concentrations (PVC) display a combination of corrosion resistance, wet-adhesion, and no peel off, contrary to test benchmarks. Additional characteristics such as MEK (methylethylketone) Rub Test (ASTM D5264), impact resistance and pendulum hardness are equivalent to conventional waterborne epoxy coatings but with the significant benefit of low VOCs.
High-performance waterborne epoxy resin paints and coatings are used in a wide variety of end-use industrial applications such as railway freight and passenger rolling stock, rail tracks and fittings, storage tanks, shipping containers, pipes, and structural steelwork.
