Role of Wetting and Dispersing Additives in Coatings

Wetting agents are used in the coatings and paints to prevent the formation of agglomerates. These chemical compounds get absorbed on the surface of the pigments as a spacer. Wetting and dispersing agents assist in separating the agglomerate into single particles and provide permanent stability in an aqueous or solvent system. The process consists of three steps such as wetting (replacement of air and water by the resin/medium), grinding (mechanical break-up and separation into primary particles), and dispersing (the distribution of particles in a liquid vehicle). New materials in this category are polyurethanes with high molecular weight dispersion. This gives higher pigment loading, more economical mill base formulations, low volatile organic compounds, and polyacrylates high molecular weights dispersants-wide range compatibility in non-polar to highly polar systems and protects effective inter-particle separation.