Polymeric aziridines as benign crosslinkers for water-based coating applications

Polymeric aziridines are introduced as a new class of low toxicity two-component crosslinkers for carboxylic resins. Using a combination of industry-standard tests and modern biotechnological approaches, the non-genotoxic nature of these compounds was demonstrated. Mechanical analysis of acrylic films formulated with these polymeric aziridines demonstrated that the high crosslink densities typical for classical aziridine chemistry could be attained. Furthermore, distribution of crosslinker molecules in both wet formulation and dried coating could be controlled by adjusting the stabilizing group of the polymeric aziridine. By tuning this stabilization mechanism, we demonstrated customized functional performance for different coating applications.