Toluene Replacement in Contact Cement Adhesive using Nipar S-10
- February 2, 2021
- Posted by: MahaChem
- Category: Adhesive, ST


With the continuing trend of “care for the environment”, some of the emerging issues for solvent-based products are – consumer & applicator awareness, and regulatory compliance.
ANGUS Chemicals has an answer for this concern on the toxicity of solvent/s – Nitroparaffins.
What are Nitroparaffins?
Nitroparaffins are based on compounds of short-chained Nitroalkanes. It has a high polarity (for azeotrope, polarity), high energy of adsorption (for substrate wetting, dispersion), high conductivity (for electrostatic atomizing), and low molecular weight (for compatibility with most resins, additives).
One of the applications for nitroparaffins is the removal of Toluene in the formulation of Contact Cement Adhesive to make it less toxic, and safer for consumers.
Formulation of Contact Cement Adhesive
Contact Cement Adhesive is composed of a mixture of 20% of the Resin blend, and 80% of the Solvent blend. Below is an experiment, and guide for the Solvent blend as tested by our partner ANGUS using Nipar S-10:
Solvent | Control (%) | With Nitroparaffin (%) | Without Nitroparaffin (%) |
---|---|---|---|
Ethyl acetate | 5.00 | 0.00 | 5.00 |
Toluene | 40.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
P1245 | 55.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
Cyclohexane | 0.00 | 85.00 | 90.00 |
Nitroparaffin | 0.00 | 10.00 | 0.00 |
Ethanol | 0.00 | 5.00 | 5.00 |
Total | 100.00 | 100.00 | 100.00 |
With the above blends, we can compare some basic chemical properties:
Solvent | Control (%) | With Nitroparaffin (%) | Without Nitroparaffin (%) |
---|---|---|---|
Solvent | Toluene | Nitroparaffin | Ethyl alcohol |
Viscosity (RVF Viscometer, RPM 50, Spindle #5 (cps)) | 760 | 880 | 1,200 |
%NVM | 19.47 | 19.25 | 20.07 |
Specific gravity (g/cm3) | 0.842 | 0.850 | 0.842 |
Peel test (N) | 1.079 | 1.990 | 1.450 |
With the above satisfactory results of the experiment, we can replace toxic solvent.
Written by Rusty from Maha Chem Philippines