Waterborne Polymers Synthesized via Click Chemistry for Coatings and Adhesives

This review highlights the preparation of click polymers from water and the role of waterborne click polymers in coatings and adhesives. Click chemistry requires a combination of certain rigid criteria, highly selective reactions, complete yields and orthogonality. This is what makes click chemistry so suitable for polymer modification and curing. Through an in-depth analysis of the structure-property relationship, this review explains how click chemistry improves the macroscopic behavior of aqueous polymers. The paper considers several click reactions, including SPAAC (Strain-Promoted Azide-Alkyne Cycloaddition), CuAAC (Copper-Catalyzed Azide-Alkyne Cycloaddition), thiol click reactions (thiol-ene, thiol-yne) and newly introduced reactions like SuFEX (Sulfur-Fluoride Exchange) and SeNEx (Selenium-Nitrogen Exchange) and IEDDA (Inverse Electron Demand Diels-Alder). Architectural, Automotive, Marine, and Biomedical Coatings applications have been considered, highlighting the role of polymers in providing superior mechanical performance with an eco-friendly approach. The review highlights applications of waterborne click polymers as adhesives based on their fast-curing time, good adhesion strength, and reduced volatile organic compounds emission. Despite the many advantages, issues concerning scalability and cost-effective synthesis processes are quite common, along with some proposed solutions.