Patent ID: 9296853
Filing Date: 2016-03-29
CPC Classification: C08F,C08K,C08L

Claim Text:
1. A method for producing a hydrogenated block copolymer, the method comprising: (a-1) polymerizing monomers with an alkyl lithium compound as an initiator in an inert solvent, thereby obtaining a living anionic polymer of formula (I): where P is a copolymer chain comprising, in reacted form, an aromatic vinyl compound polymer block (A) and a conjugated diene polymer block (B), and X is an active terminal of the living anionic polymer; (a-2) reacting a silane coupling agent having a functionality of at least four, with the living anionic polymer of formula (I) after the polymerizing (a-1) monomers to obtain a block copolymer; (b) hydrogenating the block copolymer to obtain a hydrogenated block copolymer; (c) isolating the hydrogenated block copolymer to obtain an isolated hydrogenated block copolymer; and (d) adding a Lewis base to the block copolymer or the hydrogenated block copolymer after said (a-2) reacting of the silane coupling agent with the living polymer such that (i) a functional group of the silane coupling agent, (ii) an unreacted functional group present in a coupling agent residue in the block copolymer or the hydrogenated block copolymer, or both (i) and (ii) is deactivated with the Lewis base, wherein: the Lewis base is at least one member selected from the group consisting of an alkyl lithium compound, an alkyl sodium compound, an alkyl potassium compound, an alkyl magnesium halide compound, a dialkyl copper lithium compound, and lithium amide compound; each of (a-1) and (a-2) are carried out before said (b) hydrogenating, said (b) hydrogenating is carried out before said (d) deactivating, and said (d) deactivating is carried out before said (c) isolating; or each of (a-1) and (a-2) are carried out before said (d) deactivating, said (d) deactivating is carried out before said (b) hydrogenating, and said (b) hydrogenating is carried out before said (c) isolating; and a number of functional groups derived from the coupling agent in the isolated hydrogenated block copolymer is 1.5 or less per block copolymer molecule.