The 34th annual Waterborne Symposium was held Feb. 14-16 at the New Orleans Marriott. Hosted by The School of Polymers and High Performance Materials at The University of Southern Mississippi, this year's event showed a marked improvement in attendance and number of short courses over last year's symposium, which was held just five months after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. This year's symposium featured 158 attendees and of those 25 came from outside the U.S. In addition, the symposium featured 35 short courses, up from last year's 21.

In his opening remarks Robson Storey, symposium chair, announced a name change for the event, which will now be called the Waterborne Symposium. This year's event presented a new expanded theme, "Advances in Intelligent Coatings Design." According to Storey, the program will retain its emphasis on waterborne, high solids and powder coatings, but will also address other contemporary themes including stimuli-responsive coatings, bio-based and renewable coatings and high-throughout methodologies for formulation. The 28 papers presented at this two day event provided a variety of information on these cutting-edge technologies.

At the Best Paper Awards ceremony Rob Storey presented the Elias Singer Outstanding USM Student Paper Award to Micah Black for "Auto-oxidation study of model fatty acid-functionalized acrylic copolymers."

Following the opening remarks, Ernest Galgoci of Air Products presented "Next generation coalescing surfactant for formulating low VOC coatings." According to Galgoci, in order to formulate waterborne coatings that meet the latest VOC regulations, formulators must utilize a combination of strategies to achieve optimal performance. This includes choosing an appropriate polymer, coalescing agent and additive package. Multi-functional, Gemini-type surfactants can be part of the strategy to reduce formulation VOCs by improving coalescence and providing excellent substrate wetting and low foam. "By utilizing these so-called coalescing surfactants (CS), low VOC formulations are possible with minimal effect of the overall performance," said Galgoci.

The presentation provided a description of these next generation products. "These products reduce the minimum film formation temperature of dispersion polymers as or more efficiently than traditional coalescing solvents," said Galgoci. "In addition, they provide improved wetting and lower foam properties to the coatings. Low-VOC waterborne coatings that employ CS technology perform similarly to their higher-VOC counterparts."

The Shelby F. Thames Best Paper Award was presented to Jeanne Courter of Cytec for "Formulating industrial wood coatings with a novel formaldehyde-free crosslinker to replace conventional aminoplast crosslinkers."

"Aspects of latex particle control for improved water blush resistance," presented by Scott Harvey of Ashland Specialty Company discussed latex's tendency to blush when exposed to water. The swelling of trapped hydrophilic material, resulting in pockets with different refractive indices is proposed as a possible model for blushing. A pressure sensitive latex was developed based on this model. According to Harvey, the blush was improved by choice of surfactant and control of particle diameter and the resulting latex has an unusual particle growth behavior during polymerization. A possible explanation, based on competitive growth of dissimilar particle diameters is proposed.

On the regulation side, Ronald Hill of the American Solvents Council presented "Photochemical reactivity–a new paradigm for VOC regulation." According to Hill, current VOC regulations focus on reducing the mass of volatile organic compounds emitted from various applications, but there is a more effective and efficient way to reduce the contribution of VOC emissions to ground-level ozone formation.

"Reactivity-based approaches which distinguish between more reactive and less reactive VOCs can be important in areas where VOC control is key to reducing ozone concentrations," said Hill. He explained how an emerging concept, photochemical reactivity, can significantly increase coating formulation options and improve regulatory strategies directed at VOCs. "Reactivity-based approaches provide formulators of coatings with a multitude of formulation options, enabling the industry to retain important product attributes, while achieving and/or exceeding targeted reductions in ozone creation potential," Hill continued. "The use of photochemical reactivity approaches provide formulators with greater flexibility to meet product performance criteria because there are many lower reactivity solvents to choose from that provide the properties necessary for the particular application."

The Outstanding Paper Award in New Coatings Technology was given to Ernest Galgoci of Air Products for "Next generation coalescing surfactants for formulating low VOC coatings."

Other highlights of the symposium included: "New low VOC 2K waterborne polyurethane coatings using Rhodocoat hydrophilic polyisocyanates," presented by  Xiaodong Wu of Rhodia; "Coating and films with expanded usability made from novel solvent-free polyurethane dispersions," presented by Pavel Ilmenev of Cytec Industries; "UV stabilization of waterborne coatings," presented by Gerd Faoro of Clariant; "The effect of surfactant selection on emulsion polymer properties," presented by Ana Maria Fernandez of Cognis; "Film-forming aid selection to optimize performance and minimize volatile organic content," presented by Arron Strepka of Velsicol Chemical; and "Colloidal microcrystalline cellulose–a unique suspending agent and stabilizer for waterborne coatings," presented by Shirley Yang of FMC Corp.    

At the Best Paper Awards ceremony the Elias Singer Outstanding USM Student Paper Award was presented to Micah Black for "Auto-oxidation study of model fatty acid-functionalized acrylic copolymers;" the Shelby F. Thames Best Paper Award was presented to Jeanne Courter of Cytec Industries for "Formulating industrial wood coatings with a novel formaldehyde-free crosslinker to replace conventional aminoplast crosslinkers;" and the Outstanding Paper Award in New Coatings Technology was presented to Ernest Galgoci of Air Products for "Next generation coalescing surfactants for formulating low VOC coatings."

In addition to the presentations, the Waterborne Symposium featured a Student Poster Session and a Technology Showcase which featured the latest technologies related to waterborne coatings from exhibitors including Cognis, Croda, Noetic Technologies, Stepan Company and Velsicol Chemical.

2008 CALL FOR PAPERS

The School of Polymers and High Performance Materials at The University of Southern Mississippi has issued a call for papers for presentation at the 35th Waterborne Symposium, Jan. 30-Feb. 1, 2008 in New Orleans. Papers should relate to new and emerging technologies in the field of polymer chemistry, polymer physics, formulation or performance properties of waterborne, high-solids, powder, radiation curable and smart coating systems. All papers should be original and represent recent advances in coatings science. Title, abstract and author's names (speaker's name underlined) should be submitted by mail, fax or e-mail no later than Aug. 1 to School of Polymers and High Performance Materials, The University of Southern Mississippi, Box 10063, Hattiesburg, MS 39406-0063; (601) 266-4475; Fax: (601) 266-6265; E-mail: waterborne@usm.edu; Web: www.psrc.usm.edu/waterborne.