A Selective Catalyst for Two-Component Waterborne Polyurethane Coatings

By Z. Alex He, Werner J. Blank, Marie E. Picci

The potential for formulating low VOC, high performance, two-component waterborne isocyanate crosslinked coatings has generated a great deal of interest. The difficulties in formulating these coatings, however, are significant. A major problem associated with such systems is the isocyanate-water side reaction, which can lead to gassing/foaming, loss of isocyanate functionality, low gloss, and a reduced pot life.

To compensate for this side reaction, these formulations usually contain a large excess of isocyanate. One novel approach to control the water side reaction is the use of catalysts which selectively catalyze the isocyanate-polyol reaction and not the isocyanate-water reaction. The selectivity of a variety of metal catalysts to catalyze the preferred reaction was measured using an FTIR method.

A zirconium complex has shown unusually high selectivity for the isocyanate-polyol reaction in comparison to the standard dibutyltin dilaurate catalyst. This zirconium complex catalyst has been evaluated in several waterborne polyurethane formulations and has demonstrated less gassing/foaming, longer pot life, and higher gloss than dibutyltin dilaurate at equal cure time. The mechanism of catalysis and formulating techniques of this novel zirconium catalyst will be discussed.