New regulations, increased awareness and the importance of environmental stewardship have caused a sharp increase in demand for water-borne (WB) protective topcoats. However, matching the performance of solvent-borne (SB) two-component (2K) polyurethanes remains a challenge for resin and paint producers. The synthesis and formulation of primary or secondary dispersions is not straightforward. For secondary dispersions, it is technically challenging to remove solvents from polyols prior to dispersion in water. The emulsion polymerisation process to produce primary dispersions, often faces problems of water-phase homopolymerisation of the hydroxyl monomers, resulting in poor emulsion stability, high process grit and insufficient crosslinking ...