BYK Additives & Instruments recently announced it has given its BYK Advance innovation prize to the team responsible for developing carcinogenic, mutagenic and toxic for reproduction (CMR)-free rheological additives.

The chemists reportedly investigated approximately 70 different solvents in various coating applications, taking account of the regulations and resulting registration requirements such as REACH and TSCA, and created alternatives based on the carriers that are not labeled as CMR, amide esters (ES) and amide ethers (ET). The new additives cover the whole polarity range from high to low polarity. They control the thixotropic flow, have an outstanding shear-thinning effect and exhibit time-dependent structure recovery.