Application of water-based carbon black dispersants
Water-based carbon black dispersants play a key role in many industrial fields. Their application characteristics
and effects can be analyzed from the following aspects:
1. Core application fields and effects
Water-based coating industry
Dispersion viscosity reduction and blackness improvement: By destroying the van der Waals force between
carbon black particles, nano-level dispersion (D50≤100 nm) is achieved, significantly reducing the viscosity of
the system. For example, HP2003S7 dispersant can increase the blackness of high-pigment carbon black (such as
FW255) by 15%-20% compared with competing products after dispersion, and there is no whitening and fogging
phenomenon after high-temperature baking.
Stability guarantee: Through the synergistic effect of steric hindrance and electrostatic repulsion, the storage stability
of the color paste can reach more than 6 months, and the viscosity change rate is <8%.
Function expansion: Some dispersants (such as B6012) have defoaming function, which can reduce the types of additives
in the formula and simplify the production process.
Water-based ink field
Printing quality optimization: By improving the uniformity of carbon black dispersion, the color density (OD value) of printed
products can be increased by 10%-15%, and the dot enlargement rate can be reduced to <15%, meeting the needs of
high-precision printing.
Weather resistance enhancement: The dispersant forms a hydrogen bond network with the resin, which improves the water
resistance of the ink by 2-3 levels and extends the salt spray resistance time to >500 hours.
Plastic processing industry
Conductive performance regulation: By controlling the carbon black dispersion particle size (such as D50=50-80 nm), the volume
resistivity of plastic products is stabilized in the range of 10²-10⁶ Ω·cm, meeting the needs of antistatic to conductive level.
Mechanical property improvement: Uniformly dispersed carbon black can enhance the interfacial bonding force of the matrix resin,
increase the tensile strength of the plastic by 15%-25%, and increase the impact strength by 20%-30%.
2. Technological breakthroughs and product features
Innovation in dispersion mechanism
Superdispersant grafting technology: The dispersant is anchored to the surface of carbon black through chemical bonds to form a
core-shell structure, which makes the dispersion stability break through the traditional electrostatic stabilization mechanism and remain
stable under extreme pH (2-12) and ionic strength (0.1-1.0 mol/L).
Intelligent responsive dispersant: Develop temperature-sensitive/pH-sensitive dispersants that can adjust the dispersion state with
environmental changes to meet specific process requirements.
Product performance indicators
High-efficiency viscosity reduction ability: For example, Addital DX774 can reduce the viscosity of FW255 carbon black dispersion system
from 12000 mPa·s to below 800 mPa·s in a resin-free system, with a viscosity reduction efficiency of >93%.
High blackness performance: Specific dispersants can reduce the L value of medium-pigment carbon black (such as C311) to <22, close to
the level of high-pigment carbon black, significantly reducing raw material costs.
Media resistance: After the carbon black slurry treated with dispersant is diluted 10 times in alcohol ether solvents, the particle re-coarsening
rate is <0.5%, which meets the application requirements of high solid content system.
3. Application Cases and Data Verification
Automotive Coating Application
A certain car company adopts a customized dispersant solution to make the carbon black dispersed particle size in water-based metallic
paint reach 75 nm, the gloss (60°) is increased to more than 95, and the ΔE is <1.5 after 500 hours of artificial accelerated aging (QUV).
While the formulation cost is reduced by 18%, the VOC emission is reduced to <25 g/L, meeting the latest EU environmental regulations.
Packaging ink development
In flexographic water-based inks, low viscosity (<1500 mPa·s) and high resolution (175 lpi dots are clearly reproduced) at a carbon black
content of 45% are achieved through the coordinated design of dispersants and resins.
When the printing speed is increased to 200 m/min, the ink layer thickness fluctuation is <±0.3 μm, and the scrap rate is reduced to <0.5%.
Conductive plastic production
An electronics company uses a graded dispersion process and a specific dispersant to make the volume resistivity of HDPE/carbon black
composite materials reach 10⁴ Ω·cm, while maintaining an elongation at break >300%, meeting the needs of electromagnetic shielding
materials.
Compared with traditional processes, production efficiency is increased by 40% and energy consumption is reduced by 25%.
