easy-release™ br-110 surfactants
the innovation behind the product
objective:
Ashland is dedicated to providing formulators with safe to use and safe for the environment additives and to support transitions away from materials such as polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Ashland scientists have developed a new product line, easy-release™, to provide enhanced surface properties such as block resistance, dirt pickup resistance, stain resistance, and slip enhancement.
Block resistance is the ability of two painted surfaces to be pressed together for a duration, then pulled apart without causing damage to the paint due to adhesion between surfaces. This phenomenon is commonly observed in households where painted doors and windowsills will stick after being closed. Severe block issues can cause the paint to be completely removed from one of the surfaces.
For industrial applications, the time to provide block is much more stringent. Production lines and advanced curing technologies requires painted products to be stacked rapidly after drying. This creates an emphasis on block performance at short time scales and potentially elevated temperatures.
In recent years, PFAS have been a premium additive to solve many coatings issues, including block resistance. Due to environmental concerns and regulatory pressures, companies are urgently working to remove PFAS from their formulas.
solution:
Ashland has launched the first of the easy-release™ products, easy-release™ br-110 for block resistance as a PFAS alternative. This additive is one of many surfactants that Ashland manufactures with multiple facilities to ensure a healthy supply chain.
To improve block resistance, the additive must quickly migrate to the air-liquid interface (dynamic surface tension) to form a hydrophobic, surfactant rich layer, before the coating cures or dries. This surface layer reduces the surface free energy of the coating as well as adding lubricity to help prevent the coated surfaces from sticking together. This can be determined by measuring the contact angle of a water drop on the coated surface (see graphic 1).
graphic 1
Easy-release™ br-110 greatly improves the early hot block resistance, even at low doses. Graphic 2 shows the 50˚C block resistance of a 21 PVC acrylic latex paint at 4 hours and 24 hours. Additionally, the gloss at 60 degrees is increased at low doses of easy-release™ br-110, which tapers off at higher doses. For this reason, it is always recommended to complete a dose ladder study to determine the optimum dose in a coating formula.
graphic 2
PFAS materials significantly drop the surface energy of a coating which can lead to issues with adding multiple coats (recoatability). The easy-release™ br-110 additive causes less of a decrease in surface energy indicating a better wetting for subsequent aqueous coating layers.
Easy-release™ br-110 provides additional benefits such as dirt pickup resistance, gloss, stain resistance, substrate wetting, and flow/leveling.
graphic 3
