How to Achieve Faster Dry Times and More with High-performance Catalysts in Low-VOC Alkyd Coatings

The alkyd coating market continues to face increasing challenges as government bodies and environmental agencies establish new volatile organic content (VOC) and regulatory restrictions. In many cases, reformulation is necessary to meet low-VOC requirements, which may cause adverse effects in the final coating, such as slow dry times, increasingly complex formulations, and poor coating performance.
Formulators can overcome such performance obstacles in sustainable coatings by using the proper high-perfor- mance catalyst (HPC). This unique technology can meet VOC requirements, outperform standard metal carbox- ylates across multiple resin platforms, and may eliminate the need for complex drier packages.

Alkyd resins are oil-based polyesters created by reacting alcohol and acid, which can further be modified through the addition of unsaturated oils. These oils can vary in length and branching, which will create different coating properties, allowing for high diversity and tailoring for specific applications. Alkyds form a film by undergoing
a crosslinking reaction in the presence of oxygen in the surrounding air at sites of unsaturation in the fatty acids. If unaided, this autooxidative process can be extremely slow.