Patent GB-1432782-A (GB)
Title: Polymers and processes therefor
IPC: C08F8/34
Filed: 1973-03-26
Abstract: 1432782 Polymers from macromolecular monomers CPC INTERNATIONAL Inc 26 March 1973 [14 April 1972 21 Aug 1972] 14516/73 Addition to 1392612 Heading C3P A process for preparing a copolymer comprises polymerizing at least one anionically polymerizable monomer in the presence of an anionic polymerization initiator to thereby form a monofunctional living polymer; optionally, reacting the monofunctional living polymer with a capping agent; reacting the monofunctional living polymer with a terminating agent to thereby form copolymerizable macromolecular monomers with a copolymerizable end group, and thereafter, copolymerizing said copolymerizable end group with at least one backbone-forming comonomer; wherein said copolymerizable end group and said backbone-forming comonomer form the backbone of the graft copolymer and the macromolecular monomers form the side-chains of the graft copolymer, characterized in that (a) said copolymerizable macromolecular monomers comprise from 1% to 95% by weight of the graft copolymer and said backbone-forming comonomers comprise from 99% to 5% by weight of the graft copolymer said copolymerizable macromolecular monomers having a substantially uniform molecular weight distribution such that the ratio of Mw/Mn is less than 1À1, wherein Mw is the weight average molecular weight of the macromolecular monomers and Mn is the number average molecular weight of the macromolecular monomers, and (b) the polymeric sidechains of the graft copolymer which are copolymerized into the backbone are separated by at least about 20 uninterrupted recurring polymerized units of the backbone-forming comonomer, the copolymerizable end group of the macromolecular monomers and the backbone-forming monomer having been chosen with regard to their reactivity ratios so as to control the distribution and copolymerization of the macromolecular monomers along the backbone, and (c) said graft copolymer contains at least one member selected from the group consisting of: (i) at least one backboneforming comonomer selected from the group consisting of acrylic acid, methacrylic acid; acrylamide; N-alkylacrylamide; N,N-dialkylacrylamide; methacrylamide; N-alkylmethacrylamide; N,N-dialkylmethacrylamide; acrylonitrile; methacrylonitrile, vinyl chloride; vinylidene cyanide; vinyl acetate; vinyl propionate; vinyl chloroacetate; fumaric acid and its esters; and maleic anhydrides, acids and esters; (ii) a residue of an alkali metal salt of a tertiary alcohol anionic polymerization initiator ; (iii) a capping agent selected from butadiene or isoprene; (iv) a copolymerizable end group derived from a terminating agent selected from 2-halomethyl - 1,3 - butadiene, haloalkylmaleic anhydride, haloalkylmaleate esters, vinyl haloaryls, vinyl haloalkaryls; haloalkylnorbornenes, halonorbornene, maleic anhydride, acrylyl halide, methacrylyl halide or maleic acid halide, (v) a macromolecular monomer having a polymeric segment of a vinyl aromatic hydrocarbon with a molecular weight in the range of from 5000 to 50,000 and a polymeric segment of a conjugated diene containing 4 to 12 atoms per molecule. The macromolecular monomers form the subjectmatter of Specification 1,432,783 and have the formula wherein I is the residue of a monofunctional anionic initiator, P 1  is at least one anionically polymerized monomer, X is a radical derived from a capping agent, Y is a radical derived from a terminating agent having a copolymerizable end group, n is at least about 20 and w is zero or 1.