Why does paint “dry” and not stay “wet”
In: Chemistry
Paint is made of a solvent that can evaporate, and a pigment that can’t. When paint is exposed to the air, the solvent evaporates away leaving the pigment.
Because it’s designed to evaporate the solvent and create bonds with the surface its applied to.
You really shouldn’t think of paint as “Drying” so much as “curing”.
If paint just dried, then one could wet it and wipe it off, which in MOST cases can’t be done.
Most air drying enamels and oil paints used in painting dry by the reaction of the resin in the paint with oxygen. Once the reaction starts, it causes a process known as Polymerisation, and the result is a hard paint film.
Water based paints or latex paints and acrylic colors do actually “dry” when the water in them evaporates, and as such their colors are often not as permanent and can be washed away.
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