Understanding and improving water resistance of waterborne binders

Innovation in architectural coatings for exterior walls and wood applications is currently led by low VOC and durable solutions in order to tend to more sustainability. Waterborne acrylic is one of the preferred technology to reach this market’s need.

Among UV resistance, hardness and dirt pick up resistance, water resistance is one of the most challenging requirement to achieve. Indeed, exterior substrates are subjected to severe weather along there life, leading to whitening, blistering, surfactant leaching, etc.

Based on the specifications of the paint formulators, Arkema has developed specific and complementary tests to characterize this property. Our teams have studied the link between our acrylic dispersion’s compositions and their water resistance in order to optimise our new solutions.

In this article, after discussing the different tests and their meaning in term of behaviour toward water exposure, we will present the key parameters for improving our acrylic binders.

Key takeaways:

• Identification of parameters impacting water resistance
• Water soluble species play a significant role
• Key test methods have been established to evaluate water resistance in all aspects
• Identified pathways to innovate and design solutions of the future