Geometry of a paint film: Basics revisited

“Pigment/binder geometry”: this is the title of a chapter in “Paint, flow and pigment dispersion”, the well known textbook [1] by Temple C. Patton that contributed to the coatings education of generations of paint chemists. The author had designed a graphical representation - the first one of this kind - of the volume repartition of the main components of a dry paint film as a function of the Pigment Volume Concentration, or PVC, of the paint. It was the source of inspiration for this article. His approach was however focused upon systems where the binder phase was an oil and would need to be refined and developed further when latex polymers are used instead. This is the object of the communication that follows. It is also the opportunity to re-visit a number of basic concepts.