11.

VEGETABLE OILS
The largest single family of natural resins used by the coatings industry is the vegetable oils (and, more rarely, animal
oils). These oils are conveniently subcategorized into 3
classes: drying oils, semi-drying oils, and non-drying oils.
(Distinctions among the subcategories are gradual rather
than sharp.) Only the drying oils are capable of full conversion from the liquid oil to a cohesive, hard film. While
there are over 100 naturally occurring oils that mi' T be
classified as drying oils, few have gained significant importance. The resin family is dominated by linseed oil and, to
a lesser extent, tung oil, fish oil (e.g., menhaden, sardine,
and herring), and dehydrated castor oil. Semi-drying oils,
used as intermediates in the manufacture of other oxidizing resins (such as alkyd resins and oil-modified urethanes), are dominated by soya bean oil and safflower oil.
Non-drying oils such as raw castor oil, coconut oil, and cottonseed oil are generally used as plasticizing alkyds and
alkyds that are combined with amino formaldehyde resins
in baking systems.
Chemically, oils are all triglycerides (fatty acid triesters of
glycerol). The diverse nature of the oils comes from the
make-up of the fatty acids. While the chemistries of these
materials and the reactions involved in the curing processes were described in some detail in Chapter 4, this chapter
will focus on the nature and uses of specific oil types and
the various processes that are used to modify or upgrade
specific oils.

The Properties of Raw Oils

In general, vegetable oils do not make the most satisfactory coatings when used alone. Even the fastest drying conjugated oils do not convert to the dry film rapidly. When
they do, films are soft and, at least in their early life, sensitive to physical injury (knocks and abrasions) and chemical
attack. (The ester linkages of the films are notoriously sensitive to acid and alkaline-induced hydrolysis.) Alkaliinduced hydrolysis (saponification) is a particularly unfortunate sensitivity in corrosion protection applications,
because cathodic alkali is generated near any active anode,

such as an abrasion. Newly applied linseed oil films may, in

highly corrosive environments (brine, for example), actually dissolve in the vicinity of an abrasion. Dissolution occurs
because the cathodic alkali converts the ester groups to
water-soluble salts. Such activity may be noted adjacent to
the cut scribe in the ASTM B-117 salt fog testing of a newly
applied oil film.
The most valuable properties of the oils are their low viscosities at 100 percent solids and their excellent wetting
capabilities. In spite of these properties, few unmodified
oils are now used in the coatings industry, and virtually
none are used as a sole component of non-volatile coating
vehicles.
Linseed oil has for many years been used as a highly efficient wetting vehicle in a variety of red lead-pigmented
primers for rusted steel surfaces that were cleaned solely by
hand scraping. In the U.S., the application has now been
virtually eliminated by concern over the toxicity of red
lead. This pigment serves not only as an inhibitive pigment
in these systems but also as a powerful drying catalyst for
the curing of the oil. Similarly, basic white lead carbonate
was used for generations prior to the 1960s as the primary
white pigment in oil-based house paints and structural finish paints for a variety of applications. Without such lead
catalysts, the use of drying oils of all kinds has greatly
diminished. Conventional naphthenate and other metal
salt driers are not active enough to give completely satisfactory, wrinkle-free drying of non-leaded straight oil systems in practical applications. In the modern coatings
industry, therefore, the use of drying oils has, at this time,
become almost entirely confined to their application as
intermediates in the synthesis of other resins (e.g., alkyds).
To a lesser extent, drying oils are still used by paint
chemists in the modification of other binders at the paint
manufacturing stage. The low viscosity/100 percent solids
nature of the oil is invaluable in reducing the volatile
organic compound (VOC) content of the finished formulation, if compatibility and the desired property profiles allow
such incorporation.
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