Development of biobased waterborne coatings containing Ecomer®: An alkyl polyglucoside maleic acid ester monomer

Abstract Partially biodegradable waterborne coatings with bio-contents ranging from 30 % to 65% have been developed using Ecomer®, an alkyl polyglucoside maleic acid ester functional comonomer, by seeded semibatch emulsion polymerization. The composition of the commercial monomer was characterized and its copolymerization was carried out analyzing its incorporation degree. Thereafter, waterborne coating systems containing 2-Octyl acrylate and isobornyl methacrylate as main comonomers were developed and fully analyzed. The caramelization process allowed to incorporate the free Ecomer® content as well as to improve both mechanical and coating properties. IR, TGA and DMTA analysis shed light about this process and its correlation with the final properties. The incorporation of sugar moieties resulted in partial biodegradability of the coatings films, being less biodegradable the caramelized ones.