Biomass Polyester Toner Resin for Stable Image Quality
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current toner resins face challenges such as high fossil resource consumption, environmental impact, and poor performance due to the use of polylactic acid and other materials, including issues with thermoplasticity, storage stability, and image quality, particularly when bisphenol-A and heavy metal catalysts are involved.
Innovation Solution
A polyester resin is developed using a combination of biomass-derived and petroleum-derived compounds, with lactic acid, dianhydrohexitol, and glycerin, in the presence of a titanium-based catalyst, excluding bisphenol-A and heavy metals, to create a binder with improved attachability, storage stability, and image intensity, and incorporating a styrene resin or styrene-acrylate resin for enhanced properties.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If polylactic acid resin is used as toner resin to reduce petroleum consumption, then environmental friendliness is improved, but thermoplasticity deteriorates making the resin difficult to process
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a composite resin system combining polylactic acid (biomass-derived) with polyester resin and styrene-acrylate copolymer. This composite approach allows the toner to benefit from the environmental advantages of polylactic acid while the polyester and styrene-acrylate components provide the necessary thermoplasticity and processing characteristics.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent modifies the chemical structure and composition parameters of the resin system by incorporating specific ratios of biomass-derived compounds (lactic acid, dianhydrohexitol, glycerin) with petroleum-derived polyester and styrene-acrylate copolymer. This parameter optimization balances environmental friendliness with manufacturability.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If polylactic acid resin is used to replace petroleum-based resins, then environmental friendliness is improved, but storage stability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The composite resin system combines polylactic acid with polyester resin and styrene-acrylate copolymer, where the latter two components provide enhanced storage stability and moisture resistance, compensating for the weaknesses of pure polylactic acid while maintaining its environmental benefits.
Solution Approach 2:
The polyester resin and styrene-acrylate copolymer act as intermediary components that bridge the environmental advantages of polylactic acid with the stability requirements of toner storage, creating a balanced formulation.
3Reliability
If bisphenol-A is used in polyester resin to achieve desired properties, then performance is improved, but environmental friendliness deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and eliminates bisphenol-A from the resin formulation, replacing it with environmentally friendly alternatives including biomass-derived compounds and conventional polyester resins that do not contain this harmful substance, while maintaining necessary toner performance characteristics.
4Manufacturing precision
If heavy metal catalysts are used in resin synthesis to achieve desired molecular weight, then manufacturing precision is improved, but environmental friendliness deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes heavy metal catalysts from the synthesis process and replaces them with non-toxic alternative catalysts, eliminating heavy metal contamination while maintaining the ability to achieve desired molecular weights and resin properties.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The resulting toner resin is environmentally friendly, cost-effective, and exhibits excellent storage stability, fusing temperature range, and image intensity, while avoiding the limitations of previous materials, such as polylactic acid and bisphenol-A, ensuring durable and moisture-resistant performance.
Implementation Method 1
performing an esterification reaction or an ester exchange reaction using reactants in the presence of a titanium-based catalyst
Implementation Method 2
at least one of the reactions is performed in the presence of 5 to 500 ppm based on the total amount of the polyester resin of a thermal stabilizer, wherein the thermal stabilizer is a polymerization stabilizer
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein is a toner for use in an electronic photograph-duplicating process or in an electrostatic printing process, and a polyester resin included in the toner as a binder. The polyester resin comprises lactic acids (D or L-lactic acids) or lactides (D or L-lactides) which are derivative compounds thereof, and dianhydrohexitols which are bio-derived sugar derivatives.