Rheological and Colloidal Aspects of Latex-Associative Thickener Formulations: Overcoming the Remaining Challenges
(Room 240-242)
11 Apr 18
8:30 AM
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9:30 AM
Waterborne latex paints are complex colloidal systems that present major challenges against establishing universal governing mechanisms of their stability and rheology. The complexities emanate from the wide variability of ingredients that make up the dispersed phase (latex, pigments, and fillers) as well as the continuous aqueous phase (thickeners, surfactants, dispersants, other additives, and electrolytes) of fully-formulated paints. A uniformly mixed latex paint that comes off of a mixing vessel, once poured into a container and stored, can undergo many changes such as flocculation, aggregation, sedimentation, and syneresis. Over the past four decades, associative thickeners have enhanced the formulating latitude towards circumventing some of these problems. However, a thorough understanding of these thickeners’ multi-component interactions and their sensitivities to variables in fully-formulated coatings is still lacking. In this lecture, the current level of knowledge on the subject matter will be overviewed, and what remains to be done in order to fill the existing knowledge gaps will be outlined.