High-solids coating solvents selection

Solvents are selected such that some will escape relatively quickly from paint films to prevent excessive flow, while others will escape slowly to provide film leveling and adhesion. With typical alkyd coatings, the first 30% of solvent has been observed to evaporate as quickly as the neat solvents, essentially at a constant rate which is dependent on volatility. Later stage evaporation occurred several times more slowly and was rate-controlled by solvent diffusion to the surface of the paint film. The transition point between this behavior was defined as the resin solids content at which the evaporation rate due to volatility equaled that due to diffusion. Transition points have been observed to typically occur at a resin solids content of 40-50% v/v. Thus alkyd paints, normally formulated at 27-40% v/v resin solids, generally exhibit rapid initial solvent-release driven by volatility while high solids coatings (usually 65-75% v/v resin solids) dry solely by a diffusion-controlled process with negligible influence by solvent volatility (Ellis, 1983). 

High-solids coatings of the solvent type have been discussed in other sections of this chapter. This field is active, but greatest emphasis appears to be focused on the resin component of high-solids solvent coatings. Nevertheless, proper solvent selection can materially help in the quest for high-solids coatings based on solvents. 

HPLC solvents (PDMS-coated fibres are incompatible with hexane). PDMS fibres are more selective towards nonpolar compounds and polyacrylate fibres towards polar compounds such as acids, alcohols, phenols and aldehydes. Another feature of SPME fibre selectivity is discrimination towards high-MW volatiles. SPME has successfully been applied to the analysis of both polar and nonpolar analytes from solid, liquid or gas phases. Li and Weber [533] have addressed the issue of selectivity in SPME. 

Structured supported ionic liquid-phase (SSILP) catalysis is a new concept that combines the advantages of ionic liquids (ILs) as solvents for homogeneous catalysts with the benefits of structured solid catalysts. In an attempt to prepare a homogeneous IL film on a microstructured support, SMFs were coated by a layer of carbon nanofibers as described above. An IL thin film was then immobilized on the CNF/SMF support. The high interfacial area of the IL film enabled the efficient use of a transition metal catalyst for the selective gas-phase hydrogenation of acetylenic compounds [267,268]. 

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