With the introduction of waterborne acrylic (latex) technology more than 50 years ago, commercial coatings manufacturers found an alternative to traditional solventborne alkyd chemistries that had been the mainstay of the coatings industry until that point in time. Waterborne paint chemistry offered significant advantages to both manufacturers and end users of coatings, including easier clean-up and lower VOC content when compared to solventborne alkyds, which required significant amounts of organic solvent additives during the manufacturing process. However, the switch to waterborne chemistries did not completely eliminate the VOC content of acrylic-based coatings. All acrylics, particularly “gloss” acrylic latex formulations, require the addition of organic solvents to enable coalescence and coating film formation.
