Fatty acid methyl ester as reactive diluent in thermally cured solventborne coil coatings - The effect of fatty acid pattern on the curing performance and final properties

摘要

There has been serious interest in the development of coatings with reduced solvent content over the last twenty years or so. Even the coil coating industry, a heavy user of solventborne coatings, has shown increased interest in more environmentally friendly coatings. However, waterborne, powder and radiation curing coatings have never been applied on a large scale in the coil coating industry due to cleanup difficulties on changing colour and the higher costs of modifying the production lines. This latter problem has been a strong reason for the development of high solids coatings and particularly the use of reactive diluents. A reactive diluent is a molecule with low viscosity (able to act as a solvent), but able to react with the main binder system of the coating. In the case of coil coatings, where coating lines run at 60-150 m min~(-1) at 230°C, it is important the reactive diluent has low volatility to prevent evaporation.