Coatings World - July 2008

Dow Biocides has recently begun using Taunovate high throughput testing methods to test and improve large amounts of biocide blends in a short period of time.

These labs have all initiated Taunovate high throughput testing methods. “We now have seven labs all focused on customer service,” said Richard Strittmatter, global R&D leader, Dow Biocides. “One of they key reasons was the high throughput technology we developed in Buffalo Grove. High throughput is a key capability for

the paint and coatings industry, which allows us to generate data at one-hun-dred fold. At the end of a typical 28-day test we have far more information and reliable data and by doing that we can optimize the biocide and make recommendations for the best biocide system for in-can preservation.”

Using high throughput techniques, Dow Biocides has developed a new low VOC version of BIT. Canguard Ultra BIT 20 DPG is a broad spectrum biocide that does not contain or release formaldehyde and is useful for the protection of industrial water-based products against bacteria, yeasts and fungi and offers a number of benefits, including improved color, lower viscosity at low temperatures, and a slightly higher active percentage.

Eliokem’s R&D department has set up a new process of manufacturing emulsifier free-controlled nanolatex made by controlled radical polymerization (CRP) in a single reactor using only commercially available reactants. The CRP technique allows the control of polymer com-

position, enabling new structures, such as block copolymers, new architectures and the control over functions, giving new properties obtained from the same raw materials that are used in conventional radical polymerization.

Eliokem’s researchers have also developed a process which avoids the destabi-lization of the latex during reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) radical polymerization in emulsion. The new technology uses a single reactor strategy, with only commercially available raw materials, to produce a surfactant-free nanolatex containing only controlled polymer. This controlled seed can be used for further syntheses to manufacture emulsions made of controlled polymer under RAFT control.

According to Eliokem, the new process can be considered a tool of the future to produce new materials with nanotechnologies by making use of the “bottom up” approach such as auto structuring of controlled polymer structures. CW