Method for producing water/oil repellent composition and method for producing water/oil repellent article
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional methods struggle to achieve excellent oil repellency in fiber products while maintaining water repellency and heavy-rain durability, often requiring high proportions of expensive perfluoroalkyl group-containing monomers, which can increase costs and reduce durability.
Innovation Solution
A method involving a two-step polymerization process using an emulsion of a polymer with 10-50% perfluoroalkyl group units and a monomer component with at least 80% perfluoroalkyl group, combined in a specific mass ratio, incorporating (meth)acrylate and halogenated olefin units, and optional cross-linkable groups, to produce a water/oil repellent composition.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the proportion of monomer having a perfluoroalkyl group is increased to improve oil repellency, then oil repellency is improved, but the composition becomes expensive and water repellency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by creating a core-shell structure where the polymer particles have different compositions in different regions. The core contains polymer with 10-50 mass% perfluoroalkyl units providing water repellency, while the shell contains polymer with 80-100 mass% perfluoroalkyl units providing oil repellency. This spatial differentiation allows each region to perform its specialized function, achieving excellent oil repellency without requiring the entire composition to have high perfluoroalkyl content, thus controlling costs while maintaining water repellency.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses composite materials by combining two types of polymer particles with different perfluoroalkyl group proportions into a single water/oil repellent composition. The composite structure integrates the water repellent properties of low-perfluoroalkyl polymer with the oil repellent properties of high-perfluoroalkyl polymer, achieving dual functionality that neither component could provide alone in isolation.
2Ease of manufacture
If the proportion of polymer with high perfluoroalkyl content is decreased to reduce cost, then cost is reduced, but oil repellency becomes insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies segmentation by dividing the water/oil repellent composition into distinct particle populations with different functional specializations. Instead of using a single homogeneous polymer composition, the invention segments the system into core particles (water repellent) and shell particles (oil repellent), allowing each segment to be optimized for its specific function while contributing to the overall performance of the composite coating.
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 method effectively enhances oil repellency while maintaining or improving water repellency and heavy-rain durability, offering a cost-effective solution without significant deterioration in performance.
Implementation Method 1
a polymer having units based on a monomer having a perfluoroalkyl group
Implementation Method 2
When the proportion of the units based on the monomer having a perfluoroalkyl group in the polymer is high, an article excellent in oil repellency can be obtained
Implementation Method 3
polymerizing the monomer component
Data Source
AI summary
A method for producing a water/oil repellent composition can produce an article which is excellent in the oil repellency while maintaining the water repellency and the heavy-rain durability. The method includes mixing an emulsion of a polymer having from 10 to 50 mass % of units based on a monomer having a perfluoroalkyl group per all units and an emulsion of a monomer component containing at least 80 mass % of a monomer having a perfluoroalkyl group so that the proportion of the mass of the polymer will be from 50 to 99 mass % per the sum of the mass of the polymer and the total mass of the monomer component and then polymerizing the monomer component. The monomer component includes emulsified particles in the emulsion of the monomer component. The emulsified particles have an average particle size of from 50 to 600 nm.