Does water-based paint contain formaldehyde?

When people move into a new house, they will choose to decorate it and wait for a while before moving in. This waiting period is the time for the harmful gases remaining after the decoration to dissipate. Because these gases are very harmful to the human body and even life-threatening, many people do not know whether water-based paint, a decorative product, contains harmful gas formaldehyde. So, does water-based paint contain formaldehyde?

First, does water-based paint contain formaldehyde? Using water as a solvent saves a lot of resources; eliminates the risk of fire during construction; reduces air pollution; and only uses a small amount of low-toxic alcohol ether organic solvents, which improves the working environment conditions. The organic solvent content of general water-based paints (in the paint) is between 5% and 15%, while that of cathodic electrophoretic paints has been reduced to below 1.2%, which is effective in reducing pollution and saving resources. Water-based paint can be directly applied on wet surfaces and in humid environments; it has good adaptability to material surfaces and strong coating adhesion. Painting tools can be cleaned with water, which greatly reduces the consumption of cleaning solvents and effectively reduces the harm to construction workers. The electrophoretic coating is uniform and smooth. Good flatness; the inner cavity, welds, corners, and edges can be coated with a certain thickness of coating, which has good protection; the electrophoretic coating has the best corrosion resistance, and the thick film cathodic electrophoretic coating has a salt spray resistance of up to 1200h.

Second, paint has been deeply rooted in consumers' minds, but many consumers still know very little about paint, including some bosses who have been selling paint for more than ten years who do not fully understand the hazards of paint. People can only move into a house one month after the paint is applied. Consumers think that the paint is no longer toxic at this time. In fact, this is wrong. The lack of irritating odor only means that the formaldehyde has evaporated to a level acceptable to human physiology, while the benzene, toluene and free TDI contained in the paint curing agent and thinner are still evaporating. It takes at least several decades for these things to completely evaporate, and these aromatic hydrocarbons have a great impact on the intellectual development of infants and unborn children. Free TDI also has a carcinogenic risk. The use of paint has been banned in developed European countries long ago.

Development stages Generally speaking, water-based paint technology has gone through the following three stages: The first generation of water-based paint uses acrylic acid as the main raw material, and its advantages are good water resistance and weather resistance. Its disadvantages are that its comprehensive performance is average, its chemical properties are relatively low (for example, its alcohol and alkali resistance are poor), and its physical indicators such as hardness and wear resistance are low. This is why most people think that water-based paint is not good. The second generation of water-based paint uses a complex of acrylic acid and water-based polyurethane as its main raw materials. It not only inherits the advantages of the first generation of acrylic products in terms of weather resistance and good construction tolerance, but also improves the hardness of water-based paint. However, its chemical properties are still relatively low. Currently, only a few companies in China can produce it. It is a mid-range product among water-based paints.

Does water-based paint contain formaldehyde? The third-generation water-based paint uses acrylic modified water-based polyurethane as the main raw material. Based on the second-generation water-based paint products, it has greatly improved the overall performance of the product. The hardness tested by the pencil rule can reach over 2H, which fully meets daily needs. The wear resistance even exceeds that of oil-based paint, and it has obvious advantages in service life and color matching. More importantly, the chemical properties are stable, and the alcohol and alkali resistance are greatly enhanced compared to the previous two. It is a high-end product among water-based paints, and this technology is monopolized by a few manufacturers at home and abroad. Although water-based paint has advantages such as environmental protection and good paint film effect, there is still a certain gap between one-component water-based paint and two-component oil-based paint in terms of hardness and high temperature resistance. For example, its performance shortcomings can be easily revealed when used on dining tables and floors. This functional defect led to the development of water-based paint. Development direction: With the pressure of environmental protection policies, consumers' environmental awareness continues to improve; especially provinces and cities across the country have introduced VOC emission limit standards, encouraging the use of non-solvent coatings, and bringing opportunities for the development of environmentally friendly coatings such as water-based paints. Although traditional coatings still occupy a large market share, water-based paint is a green industry and the future development direction of paints. Domestic leading water-based paint companies are rising. It is an indisputable fact that the development of water-based coatings and its market share are increasing year by year, and the trend is accelerating. Some companies have realized the vast market potential of water-based paint and have begun to develop, enter and expand the water-based paint market. Although water-based paint is superior to traditional paint in terms of environmental performance, in terms of physical properties, water-based paint products have defects such as difficult construction, water resistance, easy peeling, poor fullness, and poor hardness. Paint is still the preferred paint for many people when decorating because of its strong hardness, high paint film fullness and tolerance in construction. Only when the defects in physical performance are solved or even surpassed by traditional paints, will consumers be more proactive in choosing to use water-based paints. If water-based paint can only cater to consumers on environmental performance but fail to satisfy them on construction technology and decorative effects, it will still be difficult to open up the market. This requires water-based paint manufacturers to make technological innovations in the performance of water-based paint. In addition, due to the influence of performance, technology and other factors, the construction tolerance of water-based paint is far worse than that of oily wood paint, which often leads to unsatisfactory final paint film effect. For consumers, what they really buy is not the paint, but the coating effect after the paint is used. The saying "30% paint, 70% painting" is more appropriate to describe water-based paint. To achieve the same coating effect as oily wood coatings, water-based coatings companies are required to pay more attention to the coating construction process and attach great importance to the operational training of construction personnel. Dealers should consciously improve their professional knowledge and construction technology of water-based paint to ensure high-quality coating effects after water-based paint construction, and be able to recommend to consumers the superiority of water-based paint in terms of health and environmental protection. [1]