At the plenary session of the American Coatings Conference, Steve Sides of the ACA announced that the winning paper of the prestigious American Coatings Award is “Stress Development and Film Formation in Multiphase Composite Latexes.” The paper, authored by Kyle Price of the University of Minnesota, encompasses a project conducted in collaboration with Dr. Wenjun Wu and other research scientists at Arkema Coating Resins.
The paper will be presented Wednesday, April 9 at 9:30 a.m., and its abstract reads as follows: Designed appropriately, multiphase core-shell latex particles can simultaneously achieve film formation without the addition of a coalescing aid while preserving sufficient film hardness. Understanding how the particle morphology influences film formation and stress development is critical to achieving optimal performance in these materials. For this study, core-shell latex particles with different phase ratios, Tg's, and particle sizes (63nm to 177nm) were synthesized using a two-stage emulsion polymerization. For fully dried films, AFM data confirms correlations between particle morphology and film formation. Visualizing the intermediate stages of drying through cryoSEM reveals the mechanism of film formation for core-shell latexes. Furthermore, in-situ stress measurements in the absence of lateral drying fronts provide additional insights into particle deformation and film formation.
