Towards sustainability: ddchem water-borne and biobased curing agents for epoxy applications

Niccolò Rivato – ddchem

By the late 1960s the use of water in surface coatings was well established via vinyl-related emulsions and water-based alkyds. Extending the use of water into the more sophisticated two-pack coatings of that time, e.g. epoxy and polyurethane, was to prove much more difficult. In the case of epoxies, it was to take more than a decade from the time of inception to acceptance as coatings of real importance to industry and society¹.
It is only in the last decades, however, that waterborne epoxy resin systems for ambient cured coatings have attracted much attention thanks to new technologies and formulating experience.