The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to help coatings companies meet the goals of the EPA for reducing the amount of solvent and toxic isocyanate used in the large automotive, yachts and aviation refinish markets. In doing so it will also bring back polymer manufacturing to the United States, which has largely moved to Europe. The vehicle refinish markets have a difficult time moving towards using less solvent in their coatings because such coatings generally require a long time to dry. This leads to collection of dust in the high gloss finish, which then needs to be sanded and buffed. The nanotechnolgy of this project will constitute solid spherical polymers, known as dendrimers, which liquefy with only a small amount of solvent. The technology of this project will be enthusiastically accepted by the repaint facilities because the one component fast drying capability of the coatings will reduce the energy use of heat curing and will reduce waste they have from mixing multicomponent coatings. This technology will also reduce the painter's exposure to the toxic isocyanates currently used to cure polyurethane coatings.
The intellectual merit of this project, in its broadest sense, is to demonstrate that the complex molecular structure required for nanotechnology, and particularly the cell like structure of spherical dendrimers, can be most cost effectively produced by using a biomimetic process in which the specific shape evolves with time during its production. Dendrimers are currently very expensive because they are made in the step by step process of classic chemistry. Their use is therefore generally limited to markets like medicine or electronics which can afford their high cost. This project attempts to prove that this need not be the case. More specifically this project will break the general assumption that high solids coatings require longer times to dry and increase costs. The spherical shape of these dendrimers will be used to demonstrate that low viscosity, sprayable coatings can be created using very little solvent, but can lacquer dry within minutes at ambient conditions into a hard coating upon evaporation of the solvent.
