Nanoengineered Additives

These nanoengineered dispersions increase the scratch resistance and gloss retention of water-based coatings so that their performance can equal that of oil-based organic systems. The dispersions enable an applied coating to resist scratching and marring and retain high gloss by up to 80%. They produce a 300% to 400% improvement in scratch resistance compared to commercially available water-based coatings. These products come in the form of highly stable dispersions containing 30–50 wt.% nanoparticles. The additives provide dramatic performance improvements at nanoparticle loading levels as low as 0.5 wt.%. The technology is suitable for use in the manufacturing of nanocrystalline metal oxides, the surface engineering of nanoparticles, and the dispersion of nanoparticles into application-specific fluids.