Hydrophobic polymer compositions and a method to prepare hydrophobic polymer compositions

A hydrophobic polymer composition, comprising:

• a homopolymer of a hydrophobic monomer, a copolymer containing at least 30 wt % of at least one hydrophobic monomer or a mixture of the homopolymer and the copolymer;
• wherein
• the hydrophobic monomer is selected from the group consisting of vinyl neo-pentanoate, vinyl 2-ethylhexanoate, vinyl neo-nonanoate, vinyl neo-decanoate, vinyl neo-undecanoate, vinyl neo-dodecanoate and highly branched vinyl esters of formula (I):
• wherein
• R is —H or —CH3, and
• R1, R2 and R3 are each independently C1 to C10 alkyl groups;
• the copolymer containing at least 30 wt % of at least one hydrophobic monomer consists of the at least one hydrophobic monomer and at least one comonomer selected from the group consisting of styrene, a derivative of styrene, ethylene, propylene, 1,3-butadiene, vinyl chloride, vinylidene chloride, acrylonitrile, (meth)acrylamide, an optionally substituted C1-C30 alkyl ester of acrylic acid, and an optionally substituted C1-C30 alkyl ester of methacrylic acid,
• wherein
• a weight average molecular weight of the homopolymer and/or the copolymer is from 50,000 to 300,000 g/mole,
• a ratio Mw/Mn of the homopolymer and/or the copolymer is from 2.0 to 5.0, and
• the hydrophobic polymer composition is in the form of free-flowing beads containing the homopolymer and/or copolymer in a content of at least 95 wt %.