3M™ Novec™ Fluorosurfactants are a family of advanced wetting and leveling agents, used to improve performance in a broad range of aqueous and solvent-borne coatings, including paints, resins, adhesives, inks, clearcoats, floor coverings and more. These non-ionic polymeric fluorosurfactants offer unmatched control of surface defects such as orange peel, cratering, fish eyes and picture framing, while providing improved performance on hard-to-wet surfaces such as plastics and oily metals.
What's more, Novec fluorosurfactants help to maintain low surface tension throughout the entire drying process. This helps to create smoother, higher gloss coatings.
3M™ Novec™ Fluorosurfactant FC–4434
A water-soluble, general purpose nonionic fluorinated surfactant which contributes excellent wetting, spreading and leveling properties to a variety of coating systems.
3M™ Fluorosurfactant FC-5120 (PDF, 638 Kb)
An anionic fluorochemical surfactant intended for use in low or no-VOC coatings, and is formulated using 3M's advanced PFBS-based C4 chemistry platform. 3M fluorosurfactant FC-5120 contributes excellent wetting, spreading and leveling properties to a variety of waterborne coating systems.
3M Fluorosurfactants vs. Hydrocarbon and Silicone Surfactants
Novec fluorosurfactants offer significant performance advantages over other surfactant technologies, such as silicones and hydrocarbons.
With Novec fluorosurfactants, very little product is necessary to achieve a significant surface tension reduction of a formulation. Hydrocarbons, in contrast, often require an order of magnitude more product to significantly reduce surface tensions. Even so, the levels reached do not approach those possible with Novec fluorosurfactants.
Novec fluorosurfactants can reduce surface tension levels to about 20 dynes/cm in aqueous and non-aqueous systems surfactants. Hydrocarbon surfactants can reduce surface tensions to only about 30 dynes/cm, whereas silicone surfactants lower surface tensions to about 25 dynes/cm.
For use in non-dispersive and non-emissive applications. Not for use in food contact, medical, drug, or cosmetic applications.
Surfactants have one end (the head) that is compatible or soluble in the liquid. The other end (the tail) is not, and is able to orient itself changing the nature of the surface.
Surfactant Performance in Non-Aqueous Systems
In organic solvents, high-solids, non-aqueous or other oily phase systems, only the fluorinated surfactant is effective for lowering surface tensions, by orienting properly to the surface, due to its oleophobic tail. The HC surfactant, having an oleophillic tail, cannot orient itself to the surface, and is therefore not effective.
