Understanding film formation in coatings based on polymer dispersions stabilized by acid functional oligomers

环境问题正在推动涂料行业的变革。例如，水性涂料如乳胶漆仍然含有挥发性有机化合物（VOCs）作为促进成膜的添加剂。大气中的挥发性有机化合物促进了雾霾的形成，并造成了其他健康问题。面临的挑战是减少或消除这些涂料的VOC含量，仍然保持或提高涂料的性能。该项目基于巴斯夫合作伙伴的一项发现，即他们以无溶剂方式合成的某些富酸低聚物（AROs）可以帮助克服这些问题。这些AROs被添加到乳胶配方中，以取代一些VOCs，提高涂层的抗染色和抗腐蚀能力，但也降低了一些关键性能，如耐擦洗性和颜色强度。在这个项目中，UofT的Winnik小组将使用他们基于荧光测量和荧光显微镜开发的技术，以确定ARO在不同程度的ARO结合和4种不同性质的ARO样品中的位置。他们将在分子水平上研究AROs如何影响薄膜中乳胶颗粒的聚并。与此同时，巴斯夫的科学家将研究这些不同的配方如何影响涂料作为涂料的性能。通过这种方式，我们希望建立一个知识库，使巴斯夫的科学家能够制定对环境友好的高性能涂料。

Environmental concerns are driving changes in the coatings industry. For example, waterborne coatings such as latex paints still contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as additives to promote film formation. VOCs in the atmosphere promote smog formation and create other health concerns. The challenge is to reduce or eliminate the VOC content of these paints and still maintain or improve the performance of the coating. This project is based on a discovery by our partners at BASF that certain acid-rich oligomers (AROs) that they synthesize in a solvent-free way can help to overcome these problems. These AROs are added to a latex formulation in place of some of the VOCs, improving the resistance of the coating to staining and marring, but also reducing some key properties such as scrub resistance and color intensity. In this project, the Winnik group at the UofT will use techniques that they developed based upon fluorescence measurements and fluorescence microscopy to identify the location of the ARO in the film at different levels of ARO incorporation and for 4 different ARO samples with different properties. They will study at a molecular level how the AROs influence coalescence of the latex particles in the film. In parallel, scientists at BASF will examine how these different formulations affect the performance of the coating as a paint. In this way we hope to build a knowledge base that will enable scientists at BASF to formulate high performance coatings that are friendly to the environment.