Isobutylene containing polymers have been used in a wide variety of specialized applications such as adhesives, sealants, and strength modifiers due to their low gas permeability, excellent damping characteristics, and resistance to harsh solvents and stress cracking. To impart mechanical stability, crosslinking is desirable in many applications. However, polyisobutylene (PIB) homopolymers cannot be crosslinked without some modification either along the backbone or at the chain termini. Traditionally this has been done by copolymerization with isoprene (butyl rubber) to create a sulfur-vulcanizable rubber. As an alternative curing process, we have recently described photocurable (meth)acrylate macromers obtained by end quenching of living carbocationic PIB. Herein, we describe the constructive degradation of butyl rubber to provide PIB based photocurable macromers containing both side-chain and terminal (meth)acrylate moieties. We will compare the curing kinetics, viscoelastic properties, and calculated crosslink densities of these systems to those previously obtained by the end quenching approach.

Photocured networks from polyisobutylene macromers

255th National Meeting (2018)

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