Aqueous coating composition and method of preparing thereof

An aqueous coating composition comprising:

• (A) an emulsion polymer comprising, based on the weight of the emulsion polymer,
• from 5% to 28% by weight of structural units of a cycloalkyl (meth)acrylate,
• from 0.05% to 10% by weight of structural units of a phosphorous acid monomer, a salt thereof, or mixtures thereof,
• from zero to 10% by weight of an additional ethylenically unsaturated acid monomer, a salt thereof, or mixture thereof, and
• structural units of an additional monoethylenically unsaturated nonionic monomer;
• (B) an aliphatic carboxylic acid, a salt thereof, or mixtures thereof;
• wherein the aliphatic carboxylic acid has the structure selected from of formula (I), (II), or combinations thereof:
• HOOC—R1—COOH (I)
• R2—COOH (II)
• where R1 is an alkylene group containing 2 to 16 carbon atoms or a cycloalkylene group containing more than 8 carbon atoms to 16 carbon atoms, and R2 is an alkylene group containing 3 to 17 carbon atoms or a cycloalkylene group containing more than 8 carbon atoms to 17 carbon atoms;
• wherein the aliphatic carboxylic acid, the salt thereof, or mixtures thereof are present in an amount to provide —OOC—R1—COO— and/or R2—COO— segments at a concentration of greater than 0.29% to less than 0.7% by weight, based on the weight of the aqueous coating composition;
• (C) from 2.6% to 10% by weight of an anticorrosive pigment, based on the weight of the aqueous coating composition;
• and
• (D) water.