Characterization of waterborne acrylic based paint films and measurement of their water vapor permeabilities

Recently, production of waterborne coatings has increased significantly as a consequence of strict pollution regulations. Waterborne coatings are sensitive to humidity, thus, their barrier properties with respect to permeation of moisture needs to be determined. Among various coating constituents, binder represents the matrix structure and its amount relative to the amounts of pigments and fillers can significantly affect the structure, hence the barrier property of the coating. In this study, waterborne acrylic based paints applied as protective coating on interior and exterior wall of the buildings are studied. The paint samples formulated with four different binder contents by a commercial paint company are used in the experiments. We first determine unknown ingredients of the paint samples using different characterization tools and then investigate the effect of the binder content on the structure of the paint films. In addition, water vapor permeability of the paint films is measured using a permeation cell. Results show that the barrier property of the waterborne acrylic based paint films against humidity decreases with decreased binder content due to uneven distribution of the pigments, consequently, porous structure formation in the films.