Rohm and Haas Earns Best Paper Award during European Coatings Congress 2009

Specialty materials company Rohm and Haas (NYSE:ROH) is pleased to announce that Dr. Zhenwen Fu, a distinguished scientist with the company’s Paint and Coatings Materials division, was awarded ‘Best Paper’ recognition during the 2009 European Coatings Show Congress held in Nürnberg, Germany. Dr. Fu’s paper presented findings related to a new diffusion technology in latex paint film formulations. In latex based coatings, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are used as coalescents to ensure film formation. This new technology significantly improves early property development of waterborne latex coatings in a reduced, low VOC formulation that maintains coalescence performance to achieve required hardness, block, print and dirt pick-up resistance necessary for industrial coatings.

"Producing industrial coatings in reduced VOC latex paint formulations has been increasingly difficult to achieve while still meeting required environmental regulations,” said Dr. Fu. Designed Diffusion technology as advanced by Dr. Fu is a paradigm shift in film formulation that balances coatings properties through careful design of the polymer system and the selection of a coalescent package with unique partition coefficient and diffusion rate between different phases of the polymer system. This paper presents detailed evidence of this Designed Diffusion technology with analytical, physical and application data.

Dr. Fu has contributed to over 50 patents and publications in the areas of metal and semiconductor clusters, analytical method development and instrumentation, latex film formation, colloidal science, paper coatings and inkjet ink technology. He received a B.Sc. degree in Chemistry from Jilin University in Changchun, China and a Ph.D. degree in Physical Chemistry from the University of Utah in the United States.

To learn more about or other innovations in the European Region, visit us @ go.rohmhaas.com/coatings_eu

About Rohm and Haas Company

Rohm and Haas is a global pioneer developing innovative technologies and solutions for the specialty materials industry. Based in Philadelphia, PA, the company generated annual sales of approximately $9.6 billion in 2008. Visit www.rohmhaas.com for more information. imagine the possibilities™

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