Maria Nargiello
Head of Applied Research and Technology
Evonik Corp.
Maria graduated with a BS degree from Upsala College, majors in Chemistry and Biology, and a minor in Environmental Science. She has held technical management positions in Evonik 35+ years. She is the Head of Applied Research & Technology for Industrial & Transportation Coatings in the Americas for the Coatings Additives business. Laboratories are in Allentown, PA; Mexico City, Mexico; and San Paolo, Brazil. This business includes the Coatings & Ink business from former Evonik SILICA, TEGO Coatings Additives, functional additives from the Air Product acquisition and silica and silicates for coatings coming from the Huber acquisition in Sept 2017.
Five Novel Engineered Synthetic Silica Particle Developments to Enhance Coatings
The field of coatings technology has utilized many forms of silica-based particles in the last 70 years. This large, varied class of fillers is generically broken into two categories of crystalline and amorphous morphology. Due to strong efforts to reduce risks in the workplace, many technical developments have been made in the amorphous class for coatings. Amorphous silica character is highly adaptable and flexible, and can be modified in both the powder and pre-dispersed form. Numerous engineered types of technologies have been developed to provide functional solutions to many coating problems. This presentation will briefly review status quo and focus on five new developments that include novel designs: 1) a new aqueous thixotropic dispersion for rheology, which has very low VOC (<1.5); 2) technology resulting from a process break through making fumed silica easy to disperse; 3) specialty treated grades for haptic matting effects; 4) sub-micron matting silica to achieve velvet effects of high jet, ultra-low gloss reduction; and 5) a new high-sphericity silica technology for burnish resistance. This presentation will briefly address how amorphous silica technology is differentiated and engineered to create specially tailored solutions to enhance the performance of coatings and highlight the latest functional developments.