The main components of water-based paints are water and aqueous alcohol ether as the basic solution.

Its disadvantages are low viscosity and poor fluidity.

Usually manufacturers and painters will add thickeners to improve its viscosity and fluidity. The water-based paints with thickener can significantly improve its leveling property, better thickening and better viscosity stability.

The main properties of hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) are that it is soluble in cold water and hot water, has no gel characteristics, has a wide range of substitution, dissolution and viscosity, has good thermal stability (below 140 ℃), and does not produce precipitation under acidic conditions.

Hydroxyethyl cellulose solution can form a transparent film, which has non-ionic characteristics of no interaction with ions and good compatibility.

① High temperature and water solubility: compared with methyl cellulose (MC) only soluble in cold water, hydroxyethyl cellulose can be soluble in hot water and cold water.

It does not precipitate at high temperature or boiling, which makes it have a wide range of solubility and viscosity characteristics, as well as non thermal gel properties.

② Salt resistance: due to its non-ionic type, it can coexist with a wide range of other water-soluble polymers, surfactants and salts.

Therefore, compared with ionic carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), hydroxyethyl cellulose has better salt resistance.

③ Water retention, leveling and film-forming property: its water retention capacity is twice that of methyl cellulose.

It has excellent flow regulation, excellent film-forming property, filtration reduction property, miscibility and colloidal protection.

What role does hydroxyethyl cellulose play in waterborne coatings?

1. Thickening: high thickening effect, low dosage and low cost.

2. Water retention: the water-based coating added with hydroxyethyl cellulose can effectively improve the water retention of its products. Even if it is applied on a large area of dry substrate or super absorbent substrate, the product can form a film.

3. Pseudoplasticity and constructability: HEC added to water-based coatings, such as latex paint, has excellent performance in many aspects. It has good pseudoplasticity under various shears. When the shear rate increases, such as mixing, the viscosity decreases and can still be maintained for a short period of time. During brushing and roller coating, it can effectively reduce splashes and facilitate construction. After painting, due to the decrease of shear rate and the increase of viscosity, it is attached to the wall and leveled by itself to reduce scratches and improve construction efficiency.

4. Improve the flocculation of pigments: the aqueous emulsion paint with hydroxyethyl cellulose is added, which is conducive to the dispersion of pigments and the stability of lotion. It will not flocculate the pigment, and can be well dissolved with other auxiliary materials to improve the alkali resistance.