Three major silica matting agents.

Silica Matting Agent is an easy to disperse, organic treatment of a chemical matting agent, it's a coating additives. The main uses of silica matting agent is to reduce the gloss of the coating film, commonly used matting agent is ultrafine silica, talc, low molecular weight thermoplastic resin, etc.

In today's paint industrial, the method of adding silica matting powder is commonly uses. The main ones are :

1. Metal Soap

Metal soap is a commonly use of matting agent in the early days, which is mainly some metal stearic acid salts, like aluminum stearate, zinc stearate, magnesium sterate and so on.Among them stearin aluminum oxide is used more. The matting Principle of metal soap is based on its incompatibility with the coating composition. It is suspended in the paint with very fine particles, and when the film is formed, it i distributed on the surface of the coating film surface, so that the sueface of the coating fgilm products microscopic roughness, reduce the reflection of light on the surface of the coating film and achieve elimination light purpose.

2. Wax

Wax is a widely use matting agent used early, and it belongs to organic suspension type matting dose. After the coating is applied, with the evaporation of the solvent, the wax in the coating film the wax in the coating film precipitates to the microfine crystals suspended in the surface of the coating film, forming a layer of light scattering rough surface and play a matting role.
Waxes as matting agents are easy to use and can gives the film a good feel and resistance to water, heat and humidity, and staining. However, the wax layer formed on the surface of the coating film also prevents evaporation of solvents and the penetration of oxygen, which affects the drying and recoating of the coating film. The trend of future development is to use synthetic polymer wax and silica to obtain good matting effect.

Physical pigments, such as diatomaceous earth, kaolin, Fumed Silica are special matting agents. It is an inorganic filled matting agent. When the coating film is dry, they are micro small particles will form a slightly rough surface on the surface of the coating film, reducing the reflection of light and obtaining extinction. The matting effect of this type of matting agent is limited by many factors.

In addition to the above three types of commonly used matting agents, some dry oils, such as tung oil, can also be paint.