Preparation and characterization of ketonic polymer for coating applications

•Synthesis of ketonic resin for paint and coating applications.•Characterization of resin properties, such as, solubility, hydroxyl value, iodine value, molecular weight.•Effect of process parameters, such as, catalyst loading, temperature, reaction time and its optimization.•Development of empirical model to predict the resin properties. A systematic study has been performed to develop a synthetic resin from cyclohexanone by self–polymerization method in presence of a base catalyst. In addition, an effort has been made to characterize a product by analyzing its various physico–chemical properties such as hydroxyl content, iodine value, acid value, solubility, viscosity, adhesive strength, and average molecular weight. To investigate the effects of operating parameters on physico–chemical properties, reaction time was varied between 7 and 20h, catalyst loading was varied between 0.05–0.4, and temperature was varied in the range of 90–160°C. The extent of polymerization reaction increased with the increase of catalyst loading, reaction temperature and reaction time. A good quality resin was obtained when the reaction was performed in a closed reactor. The study confirmed that KOH offers better quality product than NaOH. The average molecular weight of the products lies in the range of 300–1200. It has been further observed that the adhesive strength of the solid resins is comparable with the commercial fivistick material. The article includes the development of mathematical model to find the product properties.