Don G. Pierson
President
Pierson Adhesive Consulting

Surfactant and Defoamers:  Acheiving Balance in Polymer Emulsions

Surfactants impart several properties essential to coatability of emulsion polymers, including dynamic and static wetting, mechanical stability, and rheological profile.  The several downsides of surfactants include their tendency to generate foam.  To aid the emulsion formulator in selecting among the thousands of commercially available surfactants and defoamers, this paper will review the molecular structure and functional mechanisms of the relevant component types with the goal of showing how structure impacts the key performance properties.  How the emulsion performance properties are measured and their relevance to coatability will also be discussed.