The Acrylic/Montmorillonite Nanocomposites for Leather Finishing

Leather finishing is carried out by application of coatings that include polymer, pigment, solvents and any auxiliary products. The acrylic resins are employed in leather finishing to produce polymer film to create a uniform protective coating on the leather surface. To increase the operational properties of the polymer coating for leather finishing, it is proposed to use nanocomposites based on acrylic resin and modified dispersions of montmorillonite (AMC). The introduction of montmorillonite allows the polymer to be structured and provides improved physical and mechanical indexes of the leather coating. Acrylic polymers and colored modified dispersions of montmorillonite (CMDM) were used for the study. The colored montmorillonite was obtained by treating water dispersions of montmorillonite by sodium carbonate, basic chromium sulfate and anionic dyes. The AMC contained 1.5–2.0% montmorillonite of the dry polymer residues. The use of AMC enhances the physical and mechanical properties of the leather coating. It is shown that the use of temperature at 60 °C for the formation of finishing coating enhances the structuring of the polymer matrix, which is confirmed by the 40 % increase in the tensile strength of films and the 10 % reduction in relative elongation at break.