Sustainable leather finishing free of NMP and with reduced VOC

摘要

Historically there were good reasons to use NMP in leather finishing products but findings associated with reproductive toxicity led to a new classification and labelling of NMP. The necessity to replace NMP required the development of numerous new specific ways for the synthesis of polyurethane dispersions, for the formulation of ready to use leather finishing products, and to overcome the initial application problems caused by the omission of NMP. This was a long and difficult task, but since the beginning of 2004 NMP-free finishing products have been available that fulfil customer's requirements.