PHILADELPHIA – The Dow Chemical Co. won the American Coatings AWARD for sharing the most outstanding technical presentation at the American Coatings CONFERENCE 2016. The award-winning technical paper details the development of new alkyd chemistry offerings to help solve the industry challenge of developing environmentally friendly alkyd-based paints and coatings that resist corrosion, adhere well and remain glossy. Erin Vogel, Ph.D., Research Scientist for Industrial Coatings at Dow Coating Materials, a business unit of Dow, accepted the award from the American Coatings Association (ACA) and partner Vincentz Network during the conference’s plenary session.

“It is such an honor to gain industry recognition for our work in advancing the performance and sustainability of paints and coatings,” said Vogel. “Our goal is to close the performance gap between reliable solventborne alkyd coatings that can emit hazardous chemicals and environmentally friendly waterborne versions. Only 10 percent of the overall alkyd coatings market is currently waterborne, so we’re confident that the availability of these new offerings will help encourage a market shift toward using alkyd coatings with improved environmental profiles.”

Market trends have favored solvent-borne alkyds, particularly for use in industrial coatings, due to properties such as fast hardness development, high gloss, excellent adhesion and overall corrosion protection. Despite these performance benefits, solventborne alkyd coatings contain VOCs that enter the air as coatings dry. In contrast, waterborne alkyd coatings have low- and near-zero VOC capabilities, but developing waterborne alkyd chemistries that perform well has remained challenging because alkyds do not mix with water.

To overcome this challenge, Dow’s proprietary process mechanically dispersed alkyds into water to develop stable waterborne alkyd dispersions. These dispersions can be formulated into ultra-low VOC alkyd coatings that can match or exceed the performance of solvent-borne formulations and display excellent gloss, adhesion and corrosion resistance properties.

Vogel presented the paper, “Ultra-Low VOC Waterborne Alkyd Dispersions with Solventborne Alkyd Performance,” at the American Coatings CONFERENCE.