Novel “Green” Sucrose Polyester Alkyds for High-Performing Low VOC Coatings

Wednesday April 14th American Coatings Show 2010 Charlotte, NC.

Neal Rogers, Cook Composites & Polymers, USA

Alkyd resins modified with sucrose polyesters provide a novel technology for formulating low VOC paints. Sucrose polyesters, derived from sugar and natural oils, are a green chemistry solution that answers problems associated with traditional high-solids resin systems. The unique molecular architecture and crosslinking density of sucrose polyesters offer a distinct advantage compared to other resin design approaches to achieve high solids low VOC paint systems. Compositional design parameters for both sucrose polyester and alkyd components of the end coatings resin impact paint performance.

Several natural vegetable oils such as soybean, linseed, and tung, are used to derive a series of sucrose polyesters. The resulting sucrose polyesters offer different ranges of unsaturation content and type in the pendant fatty acid chains which in turn leads to differences in oxidative curing character and performance of end paint formulations. The sucrose polyesters are combined with alkyd components to achieve resins varying in oil content and molecular weight. Benefits of the unique molecular morphology of sucrose polyester are demonstrated and discussed. Additionally, paint formulations made with the sucrose polyester alkyds are evaluated for drying, appearance, and film toughness. Finally, promising developments of water-borne sucrose polyester alkyd paint systems are presented.

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