This article provides a brief overview of patents, trade secrets, and an in-depth discussion of infrequently used procedural options available at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that can be leveraged to gather critical information and thereby enable a decision maker to confidently elect to either apply for a patent or maintain a trade secret.

The specialty epoxy resins and amine curing agents in this article offer performance improvements, as well as, the benefits of lower VOC content and lower indoor emissions.

The Mississippi Polymer Insti¬tute (MPI) is a non-profit industrial out¬reach arm of the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) with the mission to assist technically oriented business growth.

The object of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of different modifications on anti-corrosive performance. Straight PUDs were used to prepare DTM coatings with only small amounts of additives and without the assistance of corrosion inhibitors, passivation fillers or pig-ments.

Did you know that there can be a large difference between the Tg of polymers when the sample is in the dry or the wet (with water) state?

It was found that samples having a higher percentage of CNSL showed excellent corrosion scratch properties, and successfully passed the humidity and blistering tests. Analyzing the overall performance of the films derived from each sample, it may be said that all the samples showed good mechanical, chemical and corrosion resis¬tance, keeping cost in mind.

Soybean oil is economical and abundantly available from soybeans sustainably grown in the United States. The hydrophobic nature of this bio-based raw material is a dominant performance attribute in a multitude of coatings applications.

This article presents encouraging results from a designed study looking at the combination of recycled and renewable feedstocks, as well as the use of non-metallic corrosion inhibition, resulting in a new product for superb metal substrate protection.

We have been working on morphology control in latex particles for many years and have come to learn that achieving desired structures in composite particles is dependent not only upon the emulsion polymerization recipe, but also strongly upon the reaction process conditions.

In this study, polyurethane-acrylic resins with UV functionality have been evaluated according to industry specifications for both interior and exterior industrial wood applications.