paint separation

August 8, 2008 10:27 AM

is it possible to separate water from a water-based paint? how? thanks
posted by KaeporaGaebora to technology (3 comments total)

Evaporation? Can you describe the paint a little more? What's your end goal?
posted by jdfan at 10:43 AM on August 8, 2008

Latex paints consist of a colloidal suspension of nanoscale polymer particles in water. Ultrafiltration or centrifugation would both work to separate the particles out. The water you obtained in this way would likely still contain residual surfactants, stabilizers, and various other chemical additives. You could get these out by distillation, reverse osmosis, or, likely, adsorption onto activated carbon.
posted by mr_roboto at 10:44 AM on August 8, 2008

And, yeah, you could probably distill the paint itself as jdfan suggests, but the polymer particles will really gunk up your apparatus.
posted by mr_roboto at 10:46 AM on August 8, 2008