Environmental legislation across the globe has resulted in the paint industry attempting to move towards greener and more 'eco-friendly' products with similar performance as traditional solventborne coating formulations. The automotive refinish clearcoat sector is also bracing itself for the transition from conventional lower solid formulations to coating systems that are much lower in Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC). One of the challenges facing paint formulators is to tailor newer technologies (both high solids and waterborne) to achieve comparable properties typically observed in conventional solventborne low solids coating systems. Quite often the use of functionalized oligomers in higher solids formulations leads to coatings that take longer to dry and exhibit poor scratch and mar resistance. The present study investigates the potential benefits of a cellulose based additive, Eastman Solus~(TM) 2100 performance additive, on the overall performance of VOC compliant refinish clearcoat formulations. Data generated from external trials as well as internal studies indicated that incorporation of Solus 2100 into refinish clearcoat formulations resulted in shorter 'dry-to-touch' time, improved flow and leveling, and higher levels of gloss. An attempt was also made to understand from a more quantitative and fundamental perspective the rheological contributions that Solus 2100 brings to a coating formulation. The viscoelastic behavior of refinish clearcoat formulations was investigated by a novel technique developed internally at Eastman. There was a very good correlation between the data generated from the fundamental studies and the some of the end use performance requirements of refinish clearcoat systems.
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