Waterborne coatings are an important development direction among the four sustainable and environmentally friendly coating products (water-based coatings, powder coatings, high solid coatings, and radiation curing coatings). Compared with other types of green coatings, water-based coatings have advantages such as multiple channels, wide application range, and simple coating. The development of water-based coatings in China has attracted the attention and love of a large number of coating enthusiasts.

Waterborne coatings have been widely used in the field of architectural coatings, but in the field of industrial coatings, the proportion of water-based coatings is still very small. From the perspective of the basic composition of coatings, the resin used in water-based coatings is a crucial factor. Waterborne coatings generally have disadvantages such as poor quick drying performance, easy water absorption after film formation, and insufficient mechanical properties of the film. Developing high-performance waterborne coatings resins suitable for different application scenarios has become a hot research and key development direction in the field of waterborne coatings in recent years.

The resin for high-performance water-based coatings was first introduced from abroad, and new products for water-based coatings are gradually being developed in China. Subsequently, they gradually began to develop high-performance water-based resins on their own, and the introduction of advanced water-based resin new products gradually led to the development of their coating film performance towards resins that meet the needs of industrial water-based coatings. The commonly used resins in waterborne coatings include water resistant soap free acrylic lotion, waterborne polyurethane resin, waterborne epoxy resin, waterborne alkyd resin, etc. Some scientific and technological personnel have developed organic-inorganic hybrid waterborne resins (carbon titanium cage waterborne resins), and their application fields are further explored.   

In the application of wood paint, the proportion of water-based coatings is not high. The existing application types are mainly acrylic lotion. One component self crosslinking acrylic lotion and two-component acrylic polyurethane can be used for primer and top coating respectively. The performance of two-component resin system is comparable to that of solvent based resin. The application of water-based coatings on the surface of plastic products mainly lies in the low surface tension and polarity of plastics such as PE and PP, and the weak adhesion of water-based resins on their surfaces. For the technological development of water-based coatings for plastic products, improving the interaction between coatings and substrates is a key technical issue that must be addressed.

At present, the comprehensive application performance of waterborne bicomponent polyurethane on the surface of plastic products is the best, and the performance of other types of waterborne coatings still needs to be continuously improved and improved. In the field of light anti-corrosion, water-based resins can also meet relatively low anti-corrosion requirements and have been applied in fields such as agricultural machinery, machine tools, hardware and household appliances. The comprehensive water-based development of automotive coatings is difficult. Primers can be water-based through electrophoretic coating, while intermediate and topcoats still need to integrate the advantages of various parties to develop innovative technologies in accordance with national policies and environmental regulations.

In the fields of leather and textile, water-based coatings are also being developed. The water-based coating resin used for leather is mainly polyurethane, which has advantages such as brightness, good hand feel, and wear resistance. There are also a small amount of acrylic water-based products. In the textile industry, in recent years, several powerful enterprises have emerged in the field of water-based coatings and inks in China to develop related businesses. Products that are more in line with the personalized requirements of young people and the characteristics of small batch customization are rapidly developing. However, China's proportion of water-based coatings and inks in this field is still low, and the market potential is enormous.