Development of waterborne polymeric dispersions based on biobased monomers for their application as PSAs and coatings

Abstract

Since few years ago, environmental concerns are pushing up the society towards the use of renewable sources as solution to reduce the carbon footprint in our daily consumer goods such as coatings or adhesives. In this aspect, the combination of functional bio-based monomers together with water-based and solvent-free processes would promote the creation of eco-friendly materials capable to compete against petroleum-based ones. Furthermore, tunability, removability or degradation are the most demanded properties for this new generation of monomers coming from nature.Accordingly, this thesis has been focused in the combination of both functional and non-functional biobased monomers together with emulsion polymerization as ¿green technology¿ for obtaining high bio-content waterborne pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs) and coatings with competitive performance. For this purpose, both commercial and non-commercial biobased monomers have been employed. Therefore, the main objective has been the replacement of petroleum-based monomers by commercial renewable ones, achieving high solids content stable copolymer latexes for adhesive and coating applications. A parallel, but not less important objective, has been the synthesis of new biobased functional monomersand their incorporation into adhesive and coating formulations pursuing the synthesis of valuable materials with special features. Following this line, potential industrial applications have been evaluated and improved, giving an overview of the performance of the obtained environmentally friendly PSAs and coatings.