Neodymium versatate catalyst for the 1,3-butadiene polymerization – Effects of reaction parameters

EFFECT OF OXYGENATED COMPOUNDS ON 1,3-BUTADIENE POLYMERIZATIONS PERFORMED WITH NEODYMIUM VERSATATE. PART I: ALCOHOLS, ALDEHYDES, KETONES, AND WATER

1,3-butadiene (1,3-BD) is a building block produced mainly as a byproduct of the ethylene steam cracking process. However, due to the growing interest in sustainable technologies, there is also growing interest in manufacturing 1,3-BD from ethanol. For this reason, taking into account that the ethanol-derived 1,3-BD can contain oxygenated contaminants that are difficult to remove, the present manuscript investigates for the first time how the presence of low concentrations of some oxygenates (acetaldehyde, crotonaldehyde, 3-hydroxybutyraldehyde, acetone, water, ethanol, 1,3-butanodiol, 3-buten2-ol, crotyl alcohol, and 1-butanol) in the 1,3-BD monomer can affect polymerization reactions performed with the neodymium versatate catalyst and modify the characteristics of the obtained polybutadiene products. It is shown that the presence of oxygenated compounds can cause inhibitory effects on the course of the polymerization and modify the molar mass distributions and flow properties of the final products, although all analyzed samples presented the characteristic high-cis character of polybutadienes produced with the neodymium versatate catalyst.

POLAR ADDITIVES IN 1,3-BUTADIENE POLYMERIZATION

Butadiene rubbers are frequently produced through solution polymerizations using Ziegler–Natta catalysts based on neodymium. Particularly, there is great interest in developing rubbers that present enhanced processability during the formulation step. For this reason, the present work investigated the production of butadiene rubbers in the presence of polar additives, such as methyl methacrylate, methacrylic acid, and water, through solution polymerizations, using neodymium versatate as catalyst. The obtained results confirmed the possibility of producing butadiene rubbers with polar character that presented improved processability properties during the vulcanization stage. In addition, a new use for water and the manufacture of copolymers of butadiene and oxygenated monomers in polymerization processes that make use of neodymium catalysts are reported for the first time.