Detailed explanation of the wetting principle of water-based wetting agent

1. The concept of wetting agent:

The basic feature of the molecular structure of the wetting agent is that one end of the molecule has a hydrophilic group (segment) and the other end has a hydrophobic group (segment) Chemical material. In layman’s terms, it is a class of chemical substances whose molecules are respectively hydrophilic and hydrophobic.

Let’s take water-based wetting agents as an example to share the wetting principle of water-based wetting agents:

When the water-based resin is coated on the surface of the substrate, a part of the wetting agent is at the bottom of the coating, which is in contact with the wetted surface and is lipophilic The chain segment is adsorbed on the solid surface, and the hydrophilic group extends outward into the water. The contact between water and the substrate is changed to the contact between water and the hydrophilic group of the wetting agent, forming a sandwich structure with the wetting agent as the middle layer. Make the water phase easier to spread, so as to achieve the purpose of wetting.

Second, the type of wetting agent

Divided according to chemical structure, wetting agents currently on the market mainly include: silicone, anionic, nonionic, etc. Among them, silicone wetting agents mainly include polyether-modified silicones, anionic wetting agents are mainly ethylene oxide adducts, and nonionic wetting agents are mainly fluoropolymers.

According to the wetting object, it can be divided into:Substrate wetting type, wetting and leveling agent, wetting and dispersing agent, etc.

3. Effect evaluation of water-based wetting agent

We can know that the stronger the wetting ability, the better the spreading. In the actual production and research and development process, we take the same volume of water-based resin, add the same amount of wetting agent to prepare a water-based resin system with the same wetting agent, and then coat it on the same substrate to measure the final spreading Area, according to the size of the spreading area to judge the size of the wetting ability of the wetting agent.