Specialty biobased monomers and emulsion polymers derived from starch, 2010 TAPPI Advanced Coating Fundamentals Symposium

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Two biobased technology platforms have been developed that include a biobased sugar macromer technology and a biobased latex polymer technology. The sugar macromer platform provides a means of incorporating renewable monomers that are GRAS (generally recognized as safe) and contain no VOCs (volatile organic compounds). FAB Mass Spec demonstrated the sugar macromer consists of a mixture of different maleated alkyl polyglycosides, containing the monomer and oligomers of glucose with up to three polymerizable vinyl substituents per macromer molecule. The biobased latex platform consists of aqueous biopolymer nanoparticle latex dispersions which provide a direct substitute for petrochemical-based latex binders. A proposed model describes the nanoparticles (average size ~100 nm) as individual crosslinked macromolecular units. The product shipped dry for on-site dispersion consists of larger agglomerates (average size ~300 μm), from which nanoparticles are released when they are dispersed in water. In dispersed form the water-swollen crosslinked nanoparticles possess an effective solids that is higher than their actual solids. As a result, paper coating colors containing biobased latex binders are closer to their immobilization solids, exhibiting higher coating holdout, enhanced fiber coverage and coating smoothness. Proper dispersion is critical, as illustrated by controlled agglomeration studies in the presence of different molecular weight dextrins.