The Effect of Reaction Conditions on the Synthesis of Thermoplastic Elastomers Containing Polyalloocimene, Polyisobutylene and Tapered Blocks

• Published in: Chinese journal of polymer science Vol. 37; no. 9; pp. 884 - 890
• Main Authors: Kantor, Jozsef, Puskas, Judit E., Kaszas, Gabor
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Chemistry, CAS 01-09-2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aluminum chloride; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemical synthesis; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Condensed Matter Physics; Copolymerization; Crosslinking; Dichlorides; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Mechanical properties; Methyl chloride; Polyisobutylene; Polymer Sciences; Reaction time; Thermoplastic elastomers; Carbocationic polymerization; Triblock copolymer; Alloocimene; Polyisobutylene
• ISSN: 0256-7679; 1439-6203
• DOI: 10.1007/s10118-019-2254-8

This work investigates the effect of reaction conditions on the copolymerization of isobutylene (IB) with alloocimene (Allo) in methyl chloride (MeCl) using AlCl
3
and ethylaluminum dichloride (EtAlCl
2
) as coinitiators and adventitious moisture as the initiator. Both AlCl
3
and EtAlCl
2
produced high molecular weight (
M
n
> 1.0 × 10
5
g/mol) thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) with good mechanical properties in short reaction time (< 10 min). These unique TPEs have unsaturations in the end blocks, leading to easy functionalization and/or crosslinking.