Defoamers for every application
Broad range of high-performance defoamers extending from mineral oil-free to silicone-free and offering excellent defoaming efficiency against microfoams, long-lasting stability, zero separation during storage, and improved gloss in coatings and paints.
Unlike conventional defoamers, FoamStar® works at the molecular level, making it one of the most significant advancements in defoamer technology in 30 years. In technical terms, the development of FoamStar® was based on “antagonistic surfactant™" technology. This involves imparting both defoaming and wetting characteristics to coatings, with defect-free and excellent surface appearance.
Some surfactant mixtures tend to form a rigid film rather than an elastic one as a result of a repulsive interaction between the surfactant chains. The level of interaction between two surfactants is described by an “interaction coefficient”. Although most pairs of surfactants will exhibit a positive interaction coefficient resulting in an elastic film, some interact to yield a negative value resulting in an inelastic and unstable film.
With FoamStar®, the antagonistic surfactant™ mechanism is used to its maximum advantage in a new class of polymeric molecule that has a star-shaped hyper-branched (HB) structure. This structure was developed to function as an antagonistic surfactant in today’s aqueous coating systems. The chemistry is novel and has been registered in various countries and is patented.
The polymeric molecules that form FoamStar® are all grown from the same basic chemistry and can be manipulated (varying molecular weight, functional species, etc.) to yield improved wetting as well as powerful defoaming. For example, in one water-based system, the use of FoamStar® allowed the formulator to eliminate dioctylsulfosuccinate as a surfactant without sacrificing wetting properties. This had the double effect of reducing the inherent foaminess of the system while introducing a potent defoamer.
In applications involving water-based coatings, defoamers often cause film defects. In one such application, the FoamStar® hyperbranched polymer-based defoamer caused zero film defects. Additionally, it eliminated fish eyes caused by small bits of coagulum in the defoamer-free latex.
In paint applications, formulated versions of these hyper-branched compounds (with other defoaming components) have yielded defoaming results that are not achievable with conventional products. These results are accomplished, in some cases, without the need for any silicone chemistry -- expensive and side-effect sensitive.