Hydrophobically modified water soluble polymers of various types have been used to thicken latex paints to provide a certain performance during manufacturing, storage, and applications.
A synthetic polymer has a water soluble or water swellable polyethyleneglycol backbone and terminal groups and/or intermediate groups of blocks of hydrophobes of alkyl- or aryl compounds containing a polymerisable cyclic monomer (i.e., an epoxide, a glycidyl ether, a cyclic oxide, an oxazoline) or a polymerisable double bond (i.e., styrene, vinyl ether, acrylamides, acrylates) (or alkene) group or derivatives thereof. The blocks of hydrophobes are composed of two or more units of the same or different hydrophobes.
These synthetic polymers are used as rheology modifiers, especially in latex paints.In latex paint formulations, the polymer of the present invention can be used alone or in combination with other conventional prior art rheology modifiers (or thickeners) such as hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC), hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC), methylcellulose (MC), carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), methylhydroxy ethylcellulose (MHEC), ethylhydroxyethylcellulose (EHEC), and hydrophobically modified hydroxyethylcellulose (HMHEC). These latex-based paints have pigment volume concentration (PVC) of from 15 to about 80.