Balancing Performance of Slip/Mar Additives Using a High Throughput Approach

By Mark Langille, Aslin Izmitli, Tian Lan, Akanksha Agrawal, Chun Liu, Kevin Henderson, Yujie Lu

Additives formulating can be resource intensive and time consuming to paint manufacturers due to the plethora of ingredient combinations and interactions that affect performance properties. These challenges may inhibit the efficacy of selected additives, which are particularly important in low-VOC formulations to address foam control, water sensitivity, and general surface properties. Silicone additives in particular are disproportionately influential in impacting film properties at low use levels given the material’s distinct chemistry.

High throughput methodologies have been developed to screen and identify top performing additives candidates to address desired performance targets. The use of slip/mar additives has been a recent area of focus, with high throughput methods aiding in the exploration of additive impact on properties that include friction coefficients, mar and abrasion resistance, hardness, surface defects, and clarity. This work addresses the development of these methods and identifies top classes of silicone chemistries to balance desired film performance in wood coatings formulations.