About me
Biography
On May 1st of this year, Don will have attained 50 years of continuous R&D experience in industrial chemistry.
Don joined Dow Corning Corporation as a chemist in 1974, after having completed an MS degree in organic chemistry from Georgia Tech and a BS degree in chemistry from University of North Georgia.
Don spent all of his 41+ year career at Dow Corning in R&D where he worked in silicone resins, silicone elastomers, organosilicon intermediates, silicones in personal care, silicone emulsions and silicone coatings.
Don retired from Dow Corning as a Scientist in 2015 after which he was elected to Scientist Emeritus at Dow Corning. In 2016, he left his Scientist Emeritus position at Dow Corning and formed his consulting company: Si-Aqua Consulting, LLC. Don regularly consults for clients in the area of silicones, silicone emulsions, silicone elastomers, silicones in personal care, silicones in coatings and silicone coatings.
Don has published 14 technical papers, 4 book chapters and he has been granted 63 US patents. He has lectured in this short course annually from 1996.
Don is married and has two children. Outside of his work, Don enjoys his family, skiing, backpacking, bicycle riding and boating.
The Role of Silicones in Formulating Water-Based Coatings
Silicones represent a class of compounds that are based on the element silicon, and they exist in a variety of forms that include oils, fluids, high viscosity polymers, gums, elastomers, resins and silanes. Silicones are totally synthetic, and they have been commercially available for about the past 80 years. Due to their unusual surface properties and their ability to accommodate wide temperature extremes, silicones have become indispensable in the developed world as they are used in myriad applications, including coatings. Silicones’ use in coatings began during the early stages of silicone commercial development and today they are used extensively in coatings to provide improved flow and leveling, slip properties and improved abrasion resistance, enhanced weatherability and thermal stability, release, defoaming, adhesion or to achieve a specific purpose. The use of silicones in water-based coatings falls into the following general categories: (1) silicone additives in which a small amount (<1%) of silicone is used; (2.) silicone polymers whereby silicones constitute from 30-50% of the coating binder; (3.) 100% silicone coatings in which the entire coating binder is silicone; and (4.) aqueous water repellents. This lecture will present a brief introduction to silicones by describing what they are and some of their properties. It will also cover silicones’ function in water-based coatings and the benefits obtained from their use. Due to silicones’ unusual surface properties, several types of surface defects in water-based coatings can arise from certain silicones. A short discussion will also be presented on surface defects and how silicones can both cause and alleviate some surface defects in water-based coatings.
