Patent ID: 8202963

Claim:
A composition of matter made by a process comprising the steps of: a) reacting, optionally in a first reaction solvent, at least one multi-arm polyether having at least three arms and having at least three electrophilic endgroups, with a primary diamine crosslinker of the formula: NH 2 —R 2 —NH 2 the molar ratio of the multi-arm polyether to the primary diamine crosslinker being in the range of about 4:1 to about 50:1, thereby forming a chain-extended polymer having remaining electrophilic endgroups; and, b) treating, optionally in a second reaction solvent, said chain extended polymer so as to convert the remaining electrophilic end groups to amine end groups to provide a chain-extended polyamine product; wherein: (i) at least three of the arms of said multi-arm polyether are terminated by electrophilic endgroups capable of reacting with a primary amine to form a carbon-nitrogen bond; (ii) the multi-arm polyether has a weight-average molecular weight of about 450 to about 200,000 Daltons; (iii) R 2 is a divalent polymer group; and (iv) NH 2 —R 2 —NH 2 is a polymer having a weight-average molecular weight of about 2,000 to about 20,000 Daltons; provided that the chain-extended polyamine product is characterized by a solubility in water at 20° C. of at least 20 wt %.