GB818826A - Method of processing hydrocarbon polymers - Google Patents

Abstract

In a process for preparing a rubbery isoolefinic polymer at low temperature in the presence of a Friedel-Crafts catalyst in a nonaqueous diluent agglomeration of the polymer is avoided by mixing the slurry with an aqueous solution of 0.01 to 1 per cent by weight of an oxygenated hydrocarbon of the general formula A(O(CH2)x)yB, where A is hydrogen or an alkyl, aryl, aralkyl, alkaryl or an alkyl, aryl, aralkyl or alkaryl carboxyl radical containing 2 to 50 carbon atoms and B is a hydroxy radical or an acyloxy radical containing 2 to 50 carbon atoms and X and Y are integers between 2 and 50, and 4 and 30 respectively, and the rubbery polymer is then separated and dried. Polyisobutylene or copolymers of C4-C14 olefines with multi-olefines such as isoprene, butadiene, dimethallyl, myrcene and allo-ocymene and aromatic mono-olefinic compounds such as styrene, a - methylstyrene, p - methylstyrene, indene, p-chlorostyrene or dichloro styrene and divinyl benzene and mixtures thereof may be prepared and examples describe the polymerization of isobutylene, isobutylene-isoprene, and styrene-isobutylene. Oxygenated hydrocarbons mentioned are mono-carboxylic fatty or rosin acid esters of polyethylene glycol, e.g. the condensation product of ethylene oxide and abietic acid; alkyl phenoxy polyoxyethylene glycols, e.g. the condensation product of nonyl phenol and ethylene oxides; and aliphatic polyoxyethylene ethers e.g. the condensation product of tridecyl alcohol and ethylene oxide and they may be retained in the polymer in amounts in the range 0.005 to 0.5 per cent of polymer. An oxidation stabilizer such as n-lauroyl-paminophenol, ditertiary butyl p-cresol, phenyl b -naphthylamine or mixtures thereof may be added to the slurry, in an amount from 0.05 to 1.0 per cent based on the polymer.