Jerome Douce
R&D and Innovation Director
Vencorex
After studying Chemistry and Physics in a French Engineering school, Douce completed his Ph.D. in Material Sciences in 2003, dedicated to anti-scratch coatings based on polysiloxane and nanofillers. He then joined the Saint-Gobain Group where he worked on numerous topics, from phenolic resin, polymers to mortars formulation. After 13 years at Saint-Gobain, he decided to move to Vencorex, a company dealing with specialty chemistry based on isocyanate for CASE applications.
New Isocyanate for High-Performance Polyurethane Coatings
Today’s challenges for the coatings, adhesives and materials industries are environment oriented. Two-component systems are particularly appreciated for their outstanding performances. Polyisocyanates as building blocks for polyurethane and polyurea technology have their role to play in this trend. Two routes will be presented: one dealing with waterborne systems, the other proposing original solutions for solventborne, low-VOC systems, in particular polyurea. Waterborne 2K polyurethane coatings became a natural choice to reduce VOC in formulations. The main challenge in their design was their stability regarding the polyisocyanate reaction with water. Such formulations should assure a good balance between application time, film formation and end properties. We will demonstrate our hydrophilic polyisocyanates can be used advantageously to overcome these challenges. This environmental challenge can alternatively be addressed by drastic VOC reduction of solventborne systems. Polyureas are good candidates to reduce curing time due to their chemical structure and reactivity. However, the high reactivity implies handling difficulties and mechanical drawbacks, which can be overcome by the use of a new, low-Tg isocyanate or original bio-based building blocks.