Diluent is an organic liquid added to resin formulations, with no solvent
power, to reduce viscosity and to ease flow movement or to improve the
consistency and applicability. Typical applications would be for the manufacture
of paints, lacquer, varnishes, adhesives, and coatings. Thinner's function is to
make the application simple only and must evaporate after application. The decreases
viscosity especially at low temperatures enables heavy crude oil
and bitumen to reduce he pumping and transportation
costs via pipelines.
Dilluents for this application are naphtha or condensate. Diluent is also added
in pharmaceutical tablets and capsules as a binder,
disintegrant, or flavor
enhancers. Typical
dilluents in the pharmaceutical industry are starch, cellulose derivatives, and magnesium
stearate. The term
of diluent is also used in solvent system as an inert substance added to some
other substance or solution so that the concentration volume is decreased.
n-Butyl
Glycidyl Ether (monofunctional glycidyl ether of butyl
alcohol) and phenyl glycidyl
ether (monofunctional glycidyl ether of phenol) are general purpose aliphatic or aromatic diluents
respectively. They contain epoxide group (three-membered ring cyclic ethers that are also known
as oxiranes or alkylene oxides). This ring has the bond of highly strained 60°, which makes it highly strained
and more
reactive towards nucleophiles than other ethers. A polymer containing unreacted epoxide
units is called epoxy resin. n-Butyl
gycidyl ether and phenyl glycidyl
ether are used
to reduce viscosity of epoxy resins, favoring improved
filler loading and substrate wetting and resulting in
faster curing time. End applications include coating, adhesive, casting, laminating,
encapsulation or foam. It is also used as a stabilizer for
chlorinated vinyl resins and rubber. They are used as a chemical
intermediate to make other compounds.
