Influence of Metal Oxide Nanoparticles as Antimicrobial Additives Embedded in Waterborne Coating Binders Based on Self-Crosslinking Acrylic Latex

This article deals with the simple preparation of environmentally friendly acrylic latex binders, which are functionalized with nanoparticles of metal oxides, namely MgO, ZnO, La2O3 and combinations of MgO and ZnO, serving as functional components to achieve antimicrobial properties, but also to improve physical–mechanical properties and chemical resilience. The incorporation of uncoated powder nanoparticles was performed during the synthesis, using the two-stage semi-continuous emulsion radical polymerization technique, to obtain latexes containing 0.5%–1.3% nanoparticles relative to the polymer content. Changes in latex performance due to nanoparticles were compared from the point of view of the type and concentration of metal oxide nanoparticles in latex. The results of the tests showed that all types of nanoparticles showed very promising properties, while with increasing concentration of nanoparticles there was an improvement in properties. The nanoparticles in latex provided interfacially crosslinked transparent smooth coating films with high gloss and good physical–mechanical properties. Latexes containing the highest concentration of nanoparticles provided coatings with significant antimicrobial activity against all tested bacterial and fungal strains, but also in-can preservative stability of liquid latex. Furthermore, the coatings were resistant to solvents, and in addition, latexes with MgO nanoparticles showed a significant decrease in the minimum film-forming temperature, and latex with a concentration of about 1.3% MgO did not show any flash corrosion under the coating film cast on a steel substrate. The latexes containing MgO and La2O3 nanoparticles provided coatings that were very resistant to water bleaching.