LAUSR

Abstract Water-dispersible polymers represent an evolved category in the chemical industry in terms of an eco-friendly technology to meet the desired performance and to reduce the use of volatile solvents. One of the major challenges in the development of water dispersible resins deeply relies on the emulsification process that often requires the ionization process or the use of additional surfactants. In this study, an efficient method for the preparation of amphiphilic comb-like poly(hydroxyaminoethers), which consists of hydrophobic epoxy resins as the backbone and hydrophilic polyethers as the side chains, were realized in the absence of catalysts or initiators. Different from the conventional epoxy resin dispersions prepared in the presence of surfactants, or through ionization process, these amphiphilic comb-like polymers exhibited self-dispersed properties to achieve stable non-ionic emulsions in the water. The hydrophilic contents of these comb-like poly(hydroxyaminoethers) could be easily tailored in a wide range from less than 20 wt% to over 65 wt%, along with glass transition temperatures ranged from −45 °C to ~ 50 °C. In addition, the emulsifying ability was facilitated via the variations of the polymer architectures and compositions. Anti-corrosion properties were also evaluated for these self-dispersible poly(hydroxyaminoether) emulsions.