New catalyst for the synthesis of poly(butylene terephthalate) with high thermo-oxidative stability

✍ Scribed by Antonio Massa; Arrigo Scettri; Socrate Contessa; Valeria Bugatti; Simona Concilio; Pio Iannelli

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 150 KB
• Volume: 104
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-8995
• DOI: 10.1002/app.25662

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

In this paper we report the employment of Ti(acac)~2~(O‐__i__Pr)~2~ (titanium bisacetylacetonate diisopropylate) as a novel catalyst for the synthesis of poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT). Large scale synthesis of several polymers with the new catalytic system and with the standard catalyst Ti(O‐__n__Bu)~4~ (titanium tetra‐n‐butylate) have been performed in a 20 L pilot plant. In the optimized reaction conditions, Ti(acac)~2~(O‐__i__Pr)~2~ has shown significantly higher activity than standard catalyst, Ti(O‐__n__Bu)~4.~ Furthermore, a stabilized PBT has been synthesized in the presence of Ti(O‐__n__Bu)~4~ as catalyst with the addition of the stabilizer U626. Then, the stability of the synthesized polymers toward thermo‐oxidation has been tested in a forced circulating air oven. The polymers obtained in the presence of Ti(acac)~2~(O‐__i__Pr)~2~ system showed higher stability towards thermo‐oxidation than stabilized and not stabilized PBT, synthesized in the presence of Ti(O‐__n__Bu)~4~. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 2007