This paper reports a strong drying activity of manganese(III) acetylacetonate. It is documented on several solvent-borne and high-solid alkyd binders. Solubility problems, which often appear upon application of new primary driers, were overcome by use of dimethyl sulfoxide. Interestingly, intense coloration of the drier does not influence the transparent paint films due to in situ reduction to manganese(II) as evidenced by colorimetric measurements. Kinetics of the autoxidation process was investigated by infrared and Raman spectroscopy. For selected formulation, the effect of film thickness on through drying was estimated by infrared spectroscopy using attenuated total reflection sampling technique.

This study describes the catalytic performance of an iron(III) complex bearing a phthalocyaninato-like ligand in two solvent-borne and two high-solid alkyd binders. Standardized mechanical tests revealed strong activity, which appeared in particular cases at concentrations about one order of magnitude lower than in the case of cobalt(II) 2-ethylhexanoate, widespread used in paint-producing industry. The effect of the iron(III) compound on autoxidation process, responsible for alkyd curing, was quantified by kinetic measurements by time-resolved infrared spectroscopy and compared with several primary driers. Effect of the drier concentration on coloration of transparent coatings was determined by UV–Vis spectroscopy.

Several iron and vanadium compounds were evaluated as accelerators for curing of unsaturated polyester resins, serving as alternatives to toxic cobalt­(II) carboxylates currently in widespread use in the composite industry. The catalytic power of the given metal-based compounds has been verified by gelation time measurements on a multipurpose unsaturated polyester/styrene/methyl ethyl ketone peroxide system. Due to different demands of the application sphere, our detailed investigation of the curing process has covered two extreme situations: the behaviors of the accelerators under adiabatic and isothermal conditions. Exothermic behavior in the thermally isolated system, followed by a K-type thermocouple, enabled recognition of the inhibition of the curing process at high concentration of the accelerator and verification of its thermal stability. At isothermal conditions, a radical copolymerization process has been followed by real-time near-infrared spectroscopy, which enabled the establishment of a kinetic model for precise quantification of the catalytic effect for given accelerators.