Abstract: The disclosure relates to the use of compounds of specific structure as defoaming wetting agents for aqueous coating systems, for example paints and varnishes. The disclosure is more particularly related to methods of reducing the surface tension and/or increasing the density of an aqueous coating system, which methods include adding alcohol propoxylates to an aqueous coating system. The alcohol propoxylates have the general structure R—O—(PO)xH, in which R is a saturated alkyl radical having 7 to 10 C atoms, PO is a propylene oxide unit, and x is a number in the range from 4 to 6. The resulting aqueous coating composition has good wetting properties, but is low in foam, so it does not disrupt processing operations of the coating system.

Abstract: Compounds of the structure R—O—(PO)xH, in which R is an alkyl radical having 6 to 12 C atoms, and may be saturated or unsaturated, straight-chain or branched, PO is a propylene oxide unit and x is a number in the range from 1 to 7, are outstandingly suitable as defoaming wetting agents in aqueous coating systems, more particularly paints and inks.