Lubrizol Corporation recently commercialized Asteric� star polymers as rheology modifier for lubrican oil, based on RAFT chemistry invented by CSIRO. The polymers are sold in thousands of tons annually and are well received in the market place. The RAFT agent used in the manufacture process is a novel trithiocarbonate developed at Lubrizol. The Ketoform Reaction, which is a general method for the synthesis of hindered molecules, enables us to make hindered amines, hindered phenols and hindered imines, etc. in high yields. When the methodology is extended to RAFT agents, hindered and mono- and di-carboxyl-terminated trithiocarbonates, dithiocarbamates and xanthates can be obtained practically in large quantities.These functional RAFT agents have different reactivity toward controlled polymerization and also in esterification of the the carboxyl groups. Although trithiocarbonate as a class is more active as RAFT agent, the carboxyl-terminated dithiocarbamated can be esterified easily with most alcohols. Thus it provides the latter with another route to make unique structures such as block copolymers through esterication, followed by polymerization.Besides the commercial rheology modifier, we have made other unique polymer compositions for potential industril applications. Examples include telechelic di-carboxyl-terminated poly(meth)acrylates for toughening epoxy resins, poly(PDMS0-block-pol(meth)acrylate-block-poly(PDMS) as hair spray and polyurethane-block-poly(meth)acrylate-polyurethane dispersion for industrial coatings.

RAFT in industrial applications

248th National Meeting (2014)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.