Rheology Modifiers
Associative Thickeners
Hydrophobically Modified Urethanes, also called HEUR, have to be considered the major family of synthetic non-ionic rheology modifiers.
They are characterized by internal hydrophilic polyethylene oxide segments and terminal hydrophobic segments linked by urethane linkages.
They are low in molecular weight and highly associative due to their hydrophobic segments, ending in a mostly newtonian behaviour and a very appreciated flow/leveling effect.
From reducing VOC till solid thickeners
Almost all of our HEURs are provided as moderately viscous aqueous solutions.
They contain a certain amount of co-solvents that act as viscosity suppressors, for ease of handling of this otherwise high viscosity family of products. These co-solvents are volatile organic compounds (VOC), therefore we minimize as much as possible their content in order to reduce the impact on the formulation.
Recently we developed a brand new VOC free HEUR. For formulations where water content has to be minimized, we developed a solid version of a HEUR to be melted before use with no negative impact on its applicative performance.