A VINYL POLYMER CONTAINING SILICONS AND PREPARATION THEREOF

Abstract: A novel class of vinyl polymers containing silicons having in its molecule at least one constitutent unit of the formula wherein R¹ is a substituted or unsubstituted monovalent hydrocarbon residue; R² is R³ is hydrogen or methyl group; R⁴ is a substituent directly bonded to silicon atom and is selected from a substituted or unsubstituted alkylene, or a substituted or unsubstituted alkylene containing hetero atoms; m and n each is a positive number, which will fulfil the requirement of 2 ≦ m+n ≦4; A is a direct bond, - -O-R⁵-, --, --NH-R⁶, phenylene or substituted phenylene; B is - -O- or ---; R⁵ and R⁶ each represents an alkylene, providing that when A is- -O-R⁵- , m±n is 2. The present vinyl polymers are very useful in various technical fields including preparation of lens and other molding products, paints and various instrial resins.

Description: The present invention relates to a novel silicon-containing vinyl copolymer. As a measure for giving the characteristics possessed by a siloxane resin as water resistance, weather resistance and the like to an acrylic resin or other resins, attempts have been made to fix an organosiloxane, through a chemical linkage, to a compound bearing radically polymerizable unsaturation bond. For example, Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. 61126/79 discloses methyl di (trimethyl siloxy) silyl propyl glycerol methacrylate which is prepared by the addition reaction of organo polysiloxane containing epoxy groups and methacrylic acid and is used as a monomer for a resin which is excellent in oxygen permeability and hydrophilic properties and hence is useful as a contact lens material; Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. 63200/79 discloses an organo polysiloxane containing acryloyloxy groups which has the characteristic of being cured in a short period of time under irradiation condition and which is prepared by the reaction of organo polysiloxane containing amino groups and glycidyl acrylate; Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. 22325/81 discloses a process for the preparation of polymerizable organo polysiloxane by the reaction of organo polysiloxane containing epoxy groups and acrylate; and Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. 180667/82 discloses a process for the preparation of polymerizable organosiloxane by the reaction of trialkyl chlorosilane and hydroxyalkyl acrylate. However, they are not always of satisfaction in respects of reaction speed and reaction yield and hence are not economical in an industrial scale of production of silicon modified monomers. Furthermore, in these methods, since the principal objects are mere introduction of hydrophobic siloxane bonds to polymerizable monomers, actual use of thus obtained monomers has been rather limited to narrow range as, for example, preparation of particular resins which are to be used in specific area requiring the characteristic properties of said siloxane bonds only, for example oxygen permeability in contact lens. Under the circumstances, the present inventors, having endeavored to find out a novel class of polymerizable silicon-containing monomers bearing functional groups or bonds as well as siloxane bonds, have succeeded in establishing a method for the preparation of class of monomers represented by the formula: wherein R¹ is a substituted or unsubstituted monovalent hydrocarbon residue; R⁴ is a substituent directly bonded to silicon atom and is selected from a substituted or unsubstituted alkylene; R³ is hydrogen or methyl; A is a direct bond, or a substituted or unsubstituted phenylene group; m and n each is a positive number which will fulfil the requirement of 2 ≦ m+n ≦4, comprising reacting a hydroxyl containing silicon compound of the formula: wherein R¹, R⁴, m and n have the same meanings as defined hereinbefore, and a polymerizable isocyanate compound of the formula: wherein R³ and A have the same meanings as defined hereinbefore, and have applied a patent on it at the same day with the present patent application (i.e. Japanese Patent Application No. 65425/81). Such monomers are copolymerized with other vinyl monomers to provide various silicon-containing vinyl copolymers. Finally, EP-A-0 127 321 discloses copolymers comprising an organopolysiloxane urethane acrylate and an ethylenically unsaturated comonomer. An example of an acrylate is a bis(urethane methacrylate) having formula VI shown hereinafter. It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide a novel class of silicon-containing copolymers bearing urethane bonds as well as siloxane bonds, which are derived from said polymerizable silicon-containing monomers and are specifically useful in paint, optical lens and various other industrial applications. According to the invention, the abovesaid object can be attained with a silicon-containing vinyl copolymer, characterized in that said copolymer has in its molecule a constituent unit of formula (I): wherein R¹ is a substituted or unsubstituted monovalent hydrocarbon residue; R² is R³ is hydrogen or methyl; R⁴is a substituted or unsubstituted alkylene directly bonded to a silicon atom; m and n each is a positive number, which will fulfil the requirement of 2 ≦ m+n ≦ 4; A is a direct bond, phenylene or a substituted phenylene; B is or R⁵ and R⁶ each represents an alkylene; provided that when A is m+n is 2, said constituent unit of formula (I) being selected from formula (II), (III) or (IV): wherein R² has the same meaning as defined before, except for that A cannot be in formula (III): Y is R² or a monovalent hydrocarbon residue; Z is a monovalent hydrocarbon residue; n is a positive number of at least 2 in formula (II) and of at least 1 in formula (III): and a is 1 or 2; and a constituent unit of at least one other α,β-ethylenically unsaturated monomer. The present silicon-containing vinyl copolymers may be advantageously prepared by either one of the following methods. For the sake of clarity there will be referred to constituent units of formula (I) and to precursors thereof as a genus for the species constituent units of formula (II), (III) and (IV) according to the invention, which will be discussed and exemplified further in the description. That is, in the first method, a polymerizable monomer containing silicons represented by the formula (V): wherein R¹ is a substituted or unsubstituted monovalent hydrocarbon residue; R³ is hydrogen or methyl; R⁴ is a substituted or unsubstituted alkylene directly bonded to a silicon atom; m and n each is a positive number which will fulfil the requirement of 2 ≦ m+n ≦ 4; A is a direct bond, or a substituted or unsubstituted phenylene; B is R⁵ and R⁶ each represents an alkylene, provided that when A is m+n is 2, is copolymerized with at least one other α,β-ethylenically unsaturated monomer. In the second method, a polymerizable isocyanate compound of the formula (VI): wherein R³ is hydrogen or methyl; A is a direct bond, or a substituted or unsubstituted phenylene; R⁵ and R⁶ each represents an alkylene, and at least one other α,β-ethylenically unsaturated monomer bearing no functional group reactive to said isocyanate group, are copolymerized together and the thus obtained copolymer is then reacted with an organosilicon compound containing hydroxyl groups of the formula (VII): wherein R¹ is a substituted or unsubstituted monovalent hydrocarbon residue; R⁴ is a a substituted or unsubstituted alkylene directly bonded to a silicon atom; m and n each represents a positive number which will fulfil the requirement of 2 ≦ m+n ≦ 4, provided that when A of the aforesaid formula (VII) is m+n is 2. The polymerizable silicon-containing monomers of the formula (V) used in the preparation of the present vinyl copolymers having a constituent unit of the formula (I) are, as stated hereinbefore, novel compounds first prepared by the inventors by the reaction of organosilicon compounds containing hydroxyl groups of the formula (VII) and polymerizable isocyanate compounds of the formula (VI) wherein R¹, R⁴, m, n, R³ and A each has the same meaning as defined hereinbefore. As the organosilicon compounds containing hydroxyl groups of the formula (VII), any of linear or cyclic siloxanes or silanes having one and more silicon atoms may be satisfactorily used, providing having at least one hydroxy alkyl group attached to silicon atoms. Preferable members are the compounds of the formula (VII) in which R¹ represents substituted or unsubstituted C₁ to C₆ alkyl or alkenyl group and R⁴ represents substituted or unsubstituted lower alkylene. More specifically, particularly preferable members are 1,3,5,7-tetramethyl-3,5,7-tripropyl-1-(γ-hydroxypropyl)-cyclotetrasiloxane, bis(trimethylsiloxy)-methyl-3-hydroxypropyl silane, 1,3,5,7-tetramethyl-3,7-dipropyl-1,5-bis(γ-hydroxypropyl) cyclotetrasiloxane, 1,1,3,3-tetramethyl-1,3-bis(γ-hydroxypropyl) disiloxane, 1,1,3,3,3-pentamethyl-1-(γ-hydroxypropyl) disiloxane,tris(trimethylsiloxy)-γ-hydroxypropyl silane and 1,3,5,7-tetramethyl-3,5,7-tripropyl-1-γ-(β-hydroxyethoxy)-propyl cyclotetra siloxane. Examples of isocyanate compounds having α,β-ethylenically unsaturated bonds represented by the formula (VI) are methacryloyl isocyanate, 2-isocyanate ethyl methacrylate, 2-isocyanate methyl methacrylate, 2-isocyanate ethyl acrylate, 2-isocyanate propyl methacrylate, 2-isocyanate octyl acrylate, p-isopropenyl-α,α-dimethyl benzyl isocyanate, m-isopropenyl-α,α-dimethyl benzyl isocyanate, p-ethylenyl-α,α-dimethyl benzyl isocyanate, m-ethylenyl-α,α-dimethyl benzyl isocyanate and vinyl isocyanate. Particularly preferable member from the standview of higher reactivity toward active hydrogen bearing group is methacryloyl isocyanate. The aforesaid compound (VII) and compound (VI) are generally reacted in an equimolar ratio of hydroxyl group in said compound (VII) : isocyanate group in said compound (VI). When a highly reactive isocyanate compound is selected, the urethane reaction can be proceeded very quickly without using a catalyst and at a room temperature, and however, when a less reactive isocyanate compound is used, an appropriate catalyst as dibutyl tin dilaurate is usually employed and the reaction may be advantageously carried out at an elevated temperature, e.g. 70° to 110°C, for 2 to 4 hours. In either case, the reaction yield is excellent. The said polymerizable silicon containing monomers may also be prepared by the combination of steps of reacting an organosilicon compound containing hydroxyl groups of formula (VII) wherein R¹, R⁴, m and n are as defined above, with an isocyanate compound containing haloethyl group of the formula (VIII): wherein X represents a halogen atom; R³ is hydrogen or methyl group; A is a direct bond, or a substituted or unsubstituted phenylene; R⁵ and R⁶ each represents an alkylene, to obtain a compound of the formula (IX): in which R¹, R⁴, R³, m, n, X and A are as defined above, and of reacting the abovementioned compound (IX) with a dehydrohalogenation agent. Examples of the isocyanate compounds of the formula (VIII) are α-chloromethyl propionyl isocyanate and β-chloroproplonyl isocyanate, and examples of dehydrohalogenation agent are sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, sodium alcoxide potassium alcoxide, alkali carbonate, pyridine, dialkyl amines and trialkyl amines as triethyl amine. Since the both reactions of Step 1 and Step 2 are proceeded very effectively and quickly, this alternative method is also quite useful for the production of the polymerizable silicon containing monomers. Though the polymerizable silicon containing monomers used in the present invention are most conveniently expressed by means of the aforesaid formula (V), more specific representatives shall be given below by using the structural formula, respectively. cyclic siloxane monomers wherein Y is or a monovalent hydrocarbon residue; R³, R⁴ and A are as defined hereinbefore; n is a positive number of 2 and more. linear (non-cyclic) siloxane monomers wherein R³, R⁴ and A are as defined above; Y represents or a monovalent hydrocarbon residue; Z is a monovalent hydrocarbon residue; a is 1 or 2 and n is a positive number of 1 and more. silicon-containing monomers wherein R³, R⁴, and A are as defined above, and Y is a monovalent hydrocarbon residue or As the α,β-ethylenically unsaturated monomers to be additionally polymerized with said silicon containing polymerizable monomers in the invention, any of the members customarily used in the preparation of vinyl resins may be satisfactorily used. They may be either mono functional or poly functional compounds. Examples of mono functional monomers are methyl acrylate, methyl methacrylate, ethyl acrylate, ethyl methacrylate, n-propyl acrylate, n-propyl methacrylate, n-butyl acrylate, n-butyl methacrylate, iso-butyl acrylate, iso-butyl methacrylate, t-butyl acrylate, t-butyl methacrylate, 2-ethyl hexyl acrylate, 2-ethyl hexyl methacrylate, isononyl acrylate, isononyl methacrylate, lauryl acrylate, lauryl methacrylate, acrylic acid, methacrylic acid, 2-hydroxy ethyl acrylate, 2-hydroxy ethyl methacrylate, tri-butyl tin acrylate, tri-butyl tin methacrylate, acrylamide, N-butoxymethyl acrylamide, 2-methoxyethyl acrylate, 2-ethoxyethyl acrylate, 2-butoxyethyl acrylate, acid phosphoxy ethyl methacrylate, 3-chloro-2-acid phosphoxy propyl methacrylate, acid phosphoxy propyl methacrylate, ethyleneglycol mono acrylate, ethyleneglycol mono methacrylate and 2-isocyanate ethyl methacrylate, methacryloyl isocyanate; styrene, vinyl toluene, dibutyl fumarate, diethyl fumarate, and N-vinyl pyrrolidone. Examples of polyfunctional monomers are ethyleneglycol diacrylate, ethyleneglycol dimethacrylate, diethyleneglycol diacrylate, diethyleneglycol dimethacrylate, triethyleneglycol diacrylate, triethyleneglycol dimethacrylate, 1,3-butyleneglycol diacrylate, 1,3-butyleneglycol dimethacrylate, 1,4-butyleneglycol diacrylate, 1,4-butyleneglycol dimethacrylate, 1,6-hexaneglycol diacrylate and 1,6-hexaneglycol dimethacrylate. The polymerization of said polymerizable monomer (V) and at least one other polymerizable vinyl monomer abovementioned may be carried out, following a conventional addition polymerization technique, in the presence of an appropriate polymerization initiator as azobis series compounds and in an appropriate reaction medium, and no specific means are required. The present vinyl polymers may also be advantageously prepared by the combination steps of effecting an addition polymerization of a polymerizable isocyanate compound (VI): with at least one other α,β-ethylenically unsaturated monomer bearing no functional group reactive to said isocyanate group, e.g. hydroxyl, amino and reacting thus obtained product with an organosilicon compound containing hydroxyl groups of the formula (VIII). In either method, a novel vinyl copolymer containing silicons having in its molecule a constituent unit of the formula (I): can be easily prepared. The particular polymerizable monomer used is selected in such a way that the present vinyl copolymer contains in its molecule at least one constituent unit of either one of the following: wherein Y is R² or a monovalent hydrocarbon residue; Z is a monovalent hydrocarbon residue; n is a positive number of at least 2 in formula (II) and of at least 1 in formula (III); a is 1 or 2; and R² has the same meaning as defined hereinbefore, including the exception made for A which cannot be in formula (III). The present methods are quite suitable for the industrial scale production of the present vinyl copolymers because the required materials are easily available or prepared as desired and reaction speed and reaction yield are excellent in each reaction step involve. Furthermore, the present vinyl copolymers thus obtained have unique combination of properties of excellent water resistance, weather resistance and oxygen permeability derived from the presence of siloxane-silicon bonding, excellent adhesion towared various substrate materials due to the presence of urethane bonding, and desired properties coming from the exaggerated cohesive power. Therefore, the present vinyl polymers are quite useful in various technical fields including lens and other molding products, paints and various industrial resins. The invention shall be now more fully explained in the following examples. Unless otherwise being stated, all parts and % are by weight. Manufacturing Example 1 Into a 4-necked flask fitted with a stirrer, a reflux condenser and a dropping funnel, were placed 424 parts of 1,3,5,7-tetramethyl-3,5,7-tripropyl-1-(γ-hydroxypropyl) cyclotetrasiloxane and 60 parts of butyl acetate and the mixture was maintained at 20-25°C. To this, were dropwise added 111 parts of methacryloyl isocyanate at a constant speed in 30 minutes and after completion of said addition, the mixture was maintained at a room temperature for 3 hours and then stirred at 50°C under 5 mmHg pressure for 1 hour to remove butyl acetate out of the system. Thus obtained product was confirmed to be of the structure A: from infra-red absorption spectrum analysis and mass spectrum analysis thereof, and was a slightly viscous, clear liquid; the purity determined by quantitative analysis by gas chromatography means 98.8%; refractive index n 25 / D=1.454; and the viscosity 1.8 x 10⁻¹ Pa.s. Manufacturing Example 2 Into a similar reaction vessel as used in Example 1, were placed 280 parts of bis (trimethylsiloxy)-methyl-3-hydroxypropyl silane and maintained at 20-25°C. To this, were dropwise added 111 parts of methacryloyl isocyanate in 30 minutes at a constant speed under oxygen stream and the mixture was then maintained at 20-25°C for 1 hour to obtain the reaction product, which was confirmed by infra-red spectrum analysis to be silicon-containing polymerizable monomer of the formula (B): The product was a slightly viscous, clear liquid; the purity confirmed by gas chromatography 98.5%; and the viscosity 4.5 x 10⁻¹ Pa.s. Manufacturing Example 3 Into a similar reaction vessel as used in Manufacturing Example 1, were placed 424 parts of 1,3,5,7-tetramethyl-3,5,7-tripropyl-1-(γ-hydroxypropyl) cyclotetra siloxane, 0.5 part of dibutyl tin dilaurate and 100 parts of xylene and the mixture was maintained at 80-85°C. To this, was dropwise added under oxygen stream and at a constant speed a mixture of 155 parts of methacrylic acid 2-isocyanate ethyl and 0.06 part of 2,6-dimethyl-4-methyl phenol in 30 minutes and the mixture was maintained at 80°-85°C for 1 hour and then stirred at 50°C under 0.67 kPa pressure for 1 hour to remove xylene off. Thus obtained product was confirmed by infra-red spectrum analysis to be the polymerizable monomer (c) of the following formula: and was a slightly viscous, clear liquid; the purity confirmed by gas chromatography 99.1%; the refractiave index n 25 / D=1.4424; and the viscosity 2.0 x 10⁻¹ Pa.s. Example 1 Into a reaction vessel fitted with a stirrer, a thermometer, a reflux condenser, a nitrogen gas inlet tube and a dropping funnel, were placed 100 parts of xylene and 40 parts of the polymerizable monomer (A) obtained in Manufacturing Example 1, and the mixture was heated, under N₂ stream, to 90°C. To this, a mixture (a) of 100 parts of methyl methacrylate, 60 parts of n-butyl acrylate and 3.0 parts of 2,2'-azobisisobutyronitrile was dropwise added from the dropping funnel at a constant speed in 3 hours. After completion of said addition, the combined mixture was maintained at 90°C for 30 minutes and then added dropwise with a mixture of 1 part of t-butyl peroxy-2-ethyl hexanoate and 10 parts of xylene. Thereafter, the mixture was maintained at 90°C for 5 hours to obtain a resinous solution (I). Using a benzene-methanol purification method, a sample of purified copolymer was obtained from said resinous solution (I) and subjected to ¹H-NMR analysis. The monomer composition was as follows: Polymerizable silicon-containing monomer (A) : methyl methacrylate : n-butyl acrylate = 18.4:52.8:28.8 (weight % calculation). Molecular weight of said copolymer was analyzed by GPC means, and the result was as follows: number average molecular weight 10100 weight average molecular weight 59300 Example 2 Into a similar reaction vessel as used in Example 1, were placed 100 parts of xylene and 10 parts of methacryloyl isocyanate and the mixture was heated under N₂ stream to 90°C. To this, a mixture (b) of 60 parts of methyl methacrylate, 30 parts of n-butyl acrylate and 1.5 parts of 2,2'-azobisisobutyronitrile was dropwise added from the dropping funnel in 3 hours and the combined mixture was then maintained at 90°C for 5 hours. Thereafter, 76.4 parts of 1,3,5,7-tetramethyl-3,5,7-tripropyl-1-(γ-hydroxypropyl) cyclotetrasiloxane were dropwise added in 1 hour and the combined mixture was maintained at a room temperature for 2 hours. IR spectrum showed no presence of isocyanate groups in the reaction mixture. From a part of thus obtained resinous solution (II), purified copolymer was recovered and analyzed as in Example 1. Monomer composition: polymerizable silicon-containing monomer : methyl methacrylate : n-butyl acrylate = 32.3:45.1:22.6 (weight % calculation) number average molecular weight 13600 weight average molecular weight 88700 Example 3 Into a test tube, were placed 50g of polymerizable monomer containing silicons (A) obtained in Manufacturing Example 1, 25g of methyl methacrylate, 10g of ethyleneglycol monomethacrylate, 5g of ethyleneglycol dimethacrylate, 10g of ethyl methacrylate and 0.1g of azobisisobutyronitrile and after purging air with nitrogen gas, the tube was sealed. The content was polymerized by UV irradiation at 40°C for 18 hours and then by heating at 110°C for 6 hours to obtain colorless, solid stick, silicon-containing vinyl copolymer Example 4 Into a similar reaction vessel as used in Example 1, were placed 100 parts of xylene and the content was, while introducing N₂ gas, heated to 90°C. To this, the following mixture (c) was dropwise added in 4 hours. polymerizable monomer containing silicons (B) obtained in Manufacturing Example 2 60 parts methyl methacrylate 100 2-ethyl hexyl acrylate 40 t-butylperoxy-2-hexanoate 3 After completion of said addition, the mixture was maintained at 90°C for 30 minutes and treated as in Example 1 to obtain a resinous solution (III). The contained copolymer was purified and analyzed as in Example 1. Monomer composition: polymerizable silicon-containing monomer (B) : methyl methacrylate : 2-ethyl hexyl acrylate = 28.5:51.8:19.7 (weight % calculation) number average molecular weight 15700 weight average molecular weight 98900 Example 5 Into a similar reaction vessel as used in Example 1, were placed 100 parts of xylene and the content was, while introducing N₂ gas, heated to 90°C. To this, the following mixture (d) was dropwise added in 3 hours. Mixture (d): polymerizable silicon-containing monomer (C) obtained in Manufacturing Example 3 60 parts methyl methacrylate 100 butyl acrylate 40 2,2'-azobisisobutyronitrile 3.0 After completion of said addition, the combined mixture was maintained at 90°C for 30 minutes and thereafter treated in the same way as in Example 1 to obtain a resinous solution (IV). The contained copolymer was purified and analyzed as in Example 1. The results are as follows: polymerizable silicon-containing monomer (C) : methyl : methacrylate : butyl acrylate = 27.9:52.1:20.0 (weight % calculation) number average molecular weight 11000 weight average molecular weight 58700

Claims: A silicon-containing vinyl copolymer, characterized in that said copolymer has in its molecule a constituent unit of formula (I): wherein R¹ is a substituted or unsubstituted monovalent hydrocarbon residue; R² is R³ is hydrogen or methyl; R⁴is a substituted or unsubstituted alkylene directly bonded to a silicon atom; m and n each is a positive number, which will fulfil the requirement of 2 ≦ m+n ≦ 4; A is a direct bond, phenylene or a substituted phenylene; B is R⁵ and R⁶ each represents an alkylene; provided that when A is m+n is 2, said constituent unit of formula (I) being selected from formula (II), (III) or (IV): wherein R² has the same meaning as defined before, except that A cannot be in formula (III); Y is R² or a monovalent hydrocarbon residue; Z is a monovalent hydrocarbon residue; n is a positive number of at least 2 in formula (II) and of at least 1 in formula (III); and a is 1 or 2; and a constituent unit of at least one other α,β-ethylenically unsaturated monomer.

Inventors: EGUCHI, YOSHIO, MIZUGUCHI, RYUZO, OHSUGI, HIROHARU, URANO, SATOSHI
Applicants: NIPPON PAINT CO., LTD.
Application year: 1987
Main classification: C08F8
IPC codes: C08F8, C08F220, C08F230, C08F30