Safer Drier Series; Neodecanoates and Polymers
In accordance with REGULATION (EU) 2022/692, published on 16 February 2022, as of 23 November 2023, the classification of 2-ethylhexanoic acid and its metal salts will be reclassified as Reprotoxic 1B H360. To avoid this new classification, the limit of 0.3% cannot be exceeded.
Products containing this H360 hazard statement are prohibited from being placed on the market for public use. They can only be used by professional users and must be labelled with the phrase “Restricted to professional users”.
Neodecanoic acid, a safer acid for people and the environment within the scope of CLP, is an alternative to 2-ethylhexanoic acid. Within its comprehensive product range, EGE KIMYA has used neodecanoic acid for many years.
Using our extensive experience and knowledge of metal carboxylate technology, we have expanded our product portfolio to include metal neodecanoate products that complement the 2-ethylhexanoic acidbased products.
As neodecanoic acid is classified as nonhazardous, the new products carry only the hazardous classes attributable to the metal.
There are expected differences when comparing metal for metal, the new neodecanoate product range, with the older 2-ethylhexanoate range.
The higher molecular weight of neodecanoic acid means a higher proportion of metal carboxylate for a given metal percentage. This means there is a reduction in the amount of solvent.
As a result, the maximum working metal percentage for some neodecanoate products is lower. As the metal is responsible for the catalytic activity, Ege Kimya can guarantee
similar catalytic performance; extensive evaluations in-house have verified the effectiveness of the new product range.
A specific benefit of neodecanoate products is the increased organic acid part; this enhances the products’ solubility in hydrocarbon solvents and reduces the potential for hydrolysis.
This contributes to why neodecanoate products are less biocompatible. Within the scope of this development, Ege Kimya has developed Calcium NEO 10 products; we are the only
company presently able to offer this technology to the market.
The toxicity of Cobalt metal is extremely hazardous to human health because it is Carcinogen, Mutagen, and Reprotoxic (CMR), and it has been widely discussed.
To reduce the risks that cobalt metal causes to human health, Ege Ki̇mya has developed the polymeric cobalt product series. With the EGEDry® Prime coded products, cobalt metal is integrated into a polymeric structure.
Incorporating into a polymer reduces the negative toxic effects of metal without reducing the catalytic effect. The current EU REACh legislation does not cover polymers, so this product series complies with the legislation.
Besides, COMET and AMES tests were performed in the international accreditation laboratories for polymeric series products, it ensures that polymer series products are not repretoxic.
The first product of Ege Kimya’s polymeric cobalt series is EGEDry® Prime, developed in 2013, which contains 4% cobalt and has a viscosity of ~2500mPa.s. Ege Kimya wanted the next generation of products in the series to have higher metal content and lower viscosity.
These investigations led to the creation of EGEDry® Prime LV Pro, a product containing
6% cobalt with a typical viscosity of 800mPa.s. (Table 1).
M.Sc. Bahar Taylanlı
R&D Assistant Specialist
Ege Kimya
Dr. Aslı Ustalar İnal
Regulation Specialist
Ege Kimya
