Design and incorporation of reactive diluents for air-drying high solids alkyd paints

摘要

The development of air-drying solvent borne trade paints with solvent content below that of current solids levels will necessitate reformulation using reactive diluents. The current lack of suitable reactive diluents for air-drying systems has prompted this investigation. This paper highlights some emerging aspects of the design of reactive diluents, in particular the importance of inclusion of the correct balance of sites for both initiation and coupling reaction stages into an alkyd system together with the concept of functionality as a tool to predict performance. Also reported is a new class of reactive diluents based on fumarates and succinates of octadienol (referred to as the OFS class of reactive diluents). A detailed study on the cure and performance of this class of compounds is reported. A combination of conventional and refined analytical techniques have given new insights into the mechanism of cure of these reactive diluents as well as a measurement of incorporation into the drying paint film. The findings of this performance study have confirmed the suitability of the reactive diluent design and allowed its further refinement. OFS reactive diluents have thus been found to achieve full chemical incorporation whilst maintaining high performance of the paint.