In the coatings industry a growing need exists for cost-effective and sustainable waterborne coating binders. These binders are used in a broad variety of end markets where clear trends are found towards enhanced control over polymer microstructure to effectively steer material properties such as coating adhesion. Free-radical emulsion polymerization has for many years been the most widely used industrial process for large scale preparation of waterborne acrylics but lacks the desired level of polymerization control. Many new opportunities in polymer synthesis have emerged with the development of controlled radical polymerization (CRP) technologies. The fundamentals of CRP are well established but the main challenge remains the translation to commercial applications. Implementation of any CRP technology on industrial scale requires consideration of key aspects including ease of implementation in existing processes and costs related to the controlling agent, licensing and post-polymerization purification. This paper highlights the industrial relevance of reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization for the development of block copolymer based waterborne acrylic binders offering unique coating performance. The approach relies on the synthesis of water-dispersible block copolymers and their subsequent use as highly effective particle stabilizers in an emulsion polymerization process to produce block copolymer stabilized waterborne binders as shown in Figure 1. Examples will be presented demonstrating that the unique level of control over functional group incorporation effectively allows steering of macroscopic properties such as coating adhesion.

Block copolymer based acrylics for waterborne coating applications

248th National Meeting (2014)

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