Aluminum compounds as additional crosslinkers for air-drying high-solids alkyd paints

Aluminum compounds, especially complexes of alcohols, are known as additional crosslinkers for air-drying alkyd paints. Particularly, the drying behavior of high-solids alkyd systems applied under adverse conditions may be improved distinctly. Besides the ether- and peroxy-crosslinks resulting from oxidative drying, coordinative crosslinking occurs. However, exterior weathering of paint films containing Al-complexes frequently results in severe embrittlement. In order to cope with these problems, drying and aging of alkyds and Al-complexes were investigated. All ligands in the complex appeared to get lost during drying, a probable cause of poor weathering performance. Using specially developed alkyd paints for Al-compounds, possible ways of controlling embrittlement are discussed. P.O. Box 9300, 6800 SB Arnhem, The Netherlands. P.O. Box 3, 2170 BA Sassenheim, The Netherlands.