Novel Bimodal High-Solid Polymer Dispersions for Architectural Coatings

By Michael Krayer and , Sean W. Bullis, BASF Corporation, USA

Over the past few decades, the performance of water-based architectural paint has consistently improved. However, latex polymer dispersions used in water-based coatings are typically limited to around 50 wt % polymer solids. This is because most polymer dispersions used for architectural coatings have a fairly narrow, single particle-size distribution (monodisperse), and when the monodisperse polymer particles approach their close packing limit, there is a sharp increase in viscosity at solids contents much beyond 50%.