Najwa Mulyadi, Anis Shahirah Muhamad Suffi, Anis Nor Aziyan Azhar, Junaidah Jai and Munirah Onn
Keywords: Acrylic paint, efective microorganism, edditive, water absorption test, rub test
Abstract: Paint is a mixture of binder, pigments, solvents and additives. Each of these has its function for coating and protect surfaces. Paint failure is unavoidable due to surrounding conditions, which creates flaking, cracking, and blistering of paint. Fungus growth on the wall, and toxic odor release from the volatile organic compound (VOC) are other problems to be solved. Thus, “Smart Acrylic Emulsion Microbial Paint – SAEM PAINT” is introduced dedicated for concrete surface. EM was introduced as an additive in the paint. EM is an eco-friendly additive which promotes paint self – healing, rapid reaction towards the improvement of paint and also affordable. Four formulation samples were prepared using different volume ratio of EM in the paint which are 0%, 2%, 4% and 6% of EM, respectively. The optimal percentage of EM in the paint was determined based on the performance in rub test and water absorption test. For the rub test, painted concrete surface was rubbed with chemical solvents which were toluene, acetone, and methanol. The rubbing process was conducted several times until the painted surface was deteriorated, total number of rubs was determined and compared. For the water absorption test, the paints were drenched in the water for one night and the mass changes were observed. The 2% EM showed the optimal and desirable results when compared to pure paint (0% EM) as in rub test it showed the highest number of total rubs for toluene, acetone and methanol of 14, 6 and 7 rubs, respectively. Furthermore, 2% of EM paint has hard peeling and fast-drying when it comes to the resistance. Meanwhile, in the water absorption test, 2% of EM paint showed the lowest water absorption percentage of 0.49% compared to 1.0% of pure paint. “Smart Acrylic Emulsion Microbial Paint – SAEM PAINT” with 2% of EM has shown optimal performance as concrete paint. The ability to resist water absorption and solvent rubbing manage to solve the paint problems on fungus growth, blister, flaking and cracking.
