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Humidity-Induced Phase Transitions of Surfactants Embedded in Latex Coatings Can Drastically Alter Their Water Barrier and Mechanical Properties

Latex coatings are environmentally friendly i.e., they are formed from aqueous polymer dispersions, are cheap to produce and provide exceptional mechanical properties. Therefore, they are ubiquitous and can be found in a wide range of different applications such as paints and varnishes, pressure-sen...

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Autores principales: Gonzalez-Martinez, Juan F., Znamenskaya Falk, Yana, Björklund, Sebastian, Erkselius, Stefan, Rehnberg, Nicola, Sotres, Javier
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6415026/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30966319
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym10030284
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author Gonzalez-Martinez, Juan F.
Znamenskaya Falk, Yana
Björklund, Sebastian
Erkselius, Stefan
Rehnberg, Nicola
Sotres, Javier
author_facet Gonzalez-Martinez, Juan F.
Znamenskaya Falk, Yana
Björklund, Sebastian
Erkselius, Stefan
Rehnberg, Nicola
Sotres, Javier
author_sort Gonzalez-Martinez, Juan F.
collection PubMed
description Latex coatings are environmentally friendly i.e., they are formed from aqueous polymer dispersions, are cheap to produce and provide exceptional mechanical properties. Therefore, they are ubiquitous and can be found in a wide range of different applications such as paints and varnishes, pressure-sensitive adhesives, textiles, construction materials, paper coatings and inks. However, they also have weaknesses and their surfactant content is among them. Surfactants are often needed to stabilize polymer particles in the aqueous latex dispersions. These surfactants also form part of the coatings formed from these dispersions, and it is well-known that they can lower their performance. This work further explores this aspect and focuses on the role that embedded surfactant domains play in the response of latex coatings to humid environments. For this purpose, we made use of several experimental techniques where humidity control was implemented: quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation, atomic force microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. By means of this multimethodological approach, we report that surfactants embedded in latex coatings can undergo humidity-induced transitions towards more hydrated and softer phases, and that this results in a drastic decrease of the mechanical and water barrier properties of the whole coatings. Subsequently, this work highlights the potential of taking into account the phase behavior of surfactants when choosing which ones to use in the synthesis of latex dispersions as this would help in predicting their performance under different environmental conditions.
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spelling pubmed-64150262019-04-02 Humidity-Induced Phase Transitions of Surfactants Embedded in Latex Coatings Can Drastically Alter Their Water Barrier and Mechanical Properties Gonzalez-Martinez, Juan F. Znamenskaya Falk, Yana Björklund, Sebastian Erkselius, Stefan Rehnberg, Nicola Sotres, Javier Polymers (Basel) Article Latex coatings are environmentally friendly i.e., they are formed from aqueous polymer dispersions, are cheap to produce and provide exceptional mechanical properties. Therefore, they are ubiquitous and can be found in a wide range of different applications such as paints and varnishes, pressure-sensitive adhesives, textiles, construction materials, paper coatings and inks. However, they also have weaknesses and their surfactant content is among them. Surfactants are often needed to stabilize polymer particles in the aqueous latex dispersions. These surfactants also form part of the coatings formed from these dispersions, and it is well-known that they can lower their performance. This work further explores this aspect and focuses on the role that embedded surfactant domains play in the response of latex coatings to humid environments. For this purpose, we made use of several experimental techniques where humidity control was implemented: quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation, atomic force microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. By means of this multimethodological approach, we report that surfactants embedded in latex coatings can undergo humidity-induced transitions towards more hydrated and softer phases, and that this results in a drastic decrease of the mechanical and water barrier properties of the whole coatings. Subsequently, this work highlights the potential of taking into account the phase behavior of surfactants when choosing which ones to use in the synthesis of latex dispersions as this would help in predicting their performance under different environmental conditions. MDPI 2018-03-08 /pmc/articles/PMC6415026/ /pubmed/30966319 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym10030284 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Gonzalez-Martinez, Juan F.
Znamenskaya Falk, Yana
Björklund, Sebastian
Erkselius, Stefan
Rehnberg, Nicola
Sotres, Javier
Humidity-Induced Phase Transitions of Surfactants Embedded in Latex Coatings Can Drastically Alter Their Water Barrier and Mechanical Properties
title Humidity-Induced Phase Transitions of Surfactants Embedded in Latex Coatings Can Drastically Alter Their Water Barrier and Mechanical Properties
title_full Humidity-Induced Phase Transitions of Surfactants Embedded in Latex Coatings Can Drastically Alter Their Water Barrier and Mechanical Properties
title_fullStr Humidity-Induced Phase Transitions of Surfactants Embedded in Latex Coatings Can Drastically Alter Their Water Barrier and Mechanical Properties
title_full_unstemmed Humidity-Induced Phase Transitions of Surfactants Embedded in Latex Coatings Can Drastically Alter Their Water Barrier and Mechanical Properties
title_short Humidity-Induced Phase Transitions of Surfactants Embedded in Latex Coatings Can Drastically Alter Their Water Barrier and Mechanical Properties
title_sort humidity-induced phase transitions of surfactants embedded in latex coatings can drastically alter their water barrier and mechanical properties
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6415026/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30966319
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym10030284
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