Over the last few years, topics around health and environmental challenges, and sustainability have gained further attention, especially amongst the younger generation. This megatrend is seen across all industries globally, but is particularly visible for the automotive, chemical and manufacturing industries. Numerous new and revised regulations have been introduced to the chemical industry in different regions in the last two years, including a number of revised regulations and reclassifications of chemical substances such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, titanium dioxide (TiO2) and several isothiazolinone limitations.
With this trend in mind, Synthomer has developed a novel styrene acrylic binder with excellent water resistance, scrub resistance and hiding power, and that potentially enables the paint and coatings industry to optimize binder and pigment dosage, resulting in paint property, carbon footprint and cost improvements. Formulations based on this new binder can also meet the 2018 criteria for the RAL UZ 102 label (Blue Angel) in the category “Low Emission Interior Wall Paints.” In this article we detail our internal studies that enable the aforementioned savings by showing test results of paint formulations with a high pigment volume concentration (PVC) and within the gloss range of matte (<10 GU 85°) and dead matte (<5 GU 85°), which are popular in the central European market, particularly the DACH region. We will also elaborate on results from formulations for mid-sheen gloss >10 GU 85° wall paint, often encountered in other international markets. A market-standard styrene acrylic polymer was used as benchmark in this study.