David Dionisio Severino Rodriguez
Manager Global Adhesives Sealants Construction R&D, Elementis Ltd
David Rodrigues is Manager of Global Adhesives, Sealants & Construction R&D at ELEMENTIS, where he leads global innovation programs for specialty additives supporting adhesive, sealant, and construction formulations. His work focuses on rheology control, formulation robustness, process efficiency, and sustainability driven technologies across water and solvent based systems.
With over 20 years of experience across industry and academia, David has held senior R&D roles at H.B. Fuller and Jaguar Land Rover, and previously conducted post doctoral research in adhesion and materials science. He holds a PhD in Materials Science from Oxford Brookes University and has authored multiple peer reviewed publications in adhesion, surface science, and polymer systems. David is an active contributor to international technical conferences and industry knowledge exchange.
Low-Temperature Organic Thixotropes Enhancing Sustainability for Future Sealants
Manufacturing solvent free sealants increasingly requires processing routes that are robust, flexible, and tolerant to temperature sensitive formulation components. Conventional organic thixotropes based on castor and diamide wax chemistries are well established, but their use commonly relies on high activation temperatures, extended mixing, and subsequent cooling steps. New sealants market trend is looking for innovative and low-environmental impact chemistries, emission reduction and, in whole, looking for improving sustainable profile of final formulation in all directions: easy production, no waste, low environmental impact and longer durability at final application. Here is where the most advanced, third generation organic thixotropes, is taking the stage. In fact, low activation organic thixotrope technology enable new sealants formulations and new processing design approaches, by enlarging the processing window and improving manufacturing robustness. The latest series of THIXATROL are designed on improved amide wax technology and had proven to build structure effectively at low activation temperature and without the need for external heating, thereby reducing the overall energy input required during processing and leading to larger capacity in general. Different grades can be selected depending on formulation and processing conditions. Benchmarking studies in hybrid polymer based sealant formulations show that the low temperature thixotrope provide thixotropic / pseudoplastic flow and structural recovery out-performing conventional organic thixotrope and enabling low process temperatures. Also in comparation with commonly used rheological additives based in silica, we have evidence that THIXATROL series is higher in efficiency and make production easy, cleaner and safer. Storage stability evaluations after exposure to elevated temperatures further indicate consistent retention of rheological properties, supporting stable application behavior over time.
Breakout Session XV – Next-Generation Adhesives & Sealants Chemistry – 18 September 2026 – 12:00 – 12:30 – Room Churchill – GF