Evaluation of bio-based products in architectural paints

 
The use of bio-based products (non-food products derived from the biomass) in numerous industrial domains arouses an increasing interest. In the field of paints, the challenges the industry has to face are a limited range of bio-based products presenting a profile being satisfactory in terms of quality, cost and availability and a lack of information on these products. In this optics, this study aimed at the evaluation of bio-based products in the formulations of architectural paints. The envisaged products are sugar esters, alkyl polyglucosides (APG), alkyl polypentosides (APP) and gluten. The three first ones were evaluated as dispersing agents. These surfactants present the advantage to be non-toxic, biodegradable, cheap, not irritating and odourless. They were synthesized from natural products extracted from agricultural by-products and biomass (1). Wheat gluten is a by-products of the wheat starch industry, widely available and at low price. It can be distinguished from other industrial proteins by some of its particular properties like its insolubility in water, its viscoelastic behaviour, its potential film-forming ability, its RH-dependent gas barrier properties and its rather high water vapour permeability(2,3). All these properties have been exploited in the development of edibles coatings (4,5) and in the non-food sector (5-6). In this study, it has been evaluated as binder or co-binder in the formulations of architectural paints in replacement of a synthetic binder.