Functionalized Polymer, Process For Preparing And Rubber Compositions Containing The Functionalized Polymer

A process for preparing a functionalized diene monomer-containing polymer comprising:

• a. polymerizing at least one conjugated diene monomer and optionally at least one vinyl aromatic monomer to produce polymer chains with a living end;
• b. reacting the living end polymer chains from (a) with a first functionalizing compound selected from:
• i.
• wherein n is an integer of 0 to 16, or
• ii.
• wherein R1 is selected from H and hydrocarbyl of C1-C20, and R2 is selected from H and hydrocarbyl of C1-C20,
• thereby producing an intermediary product including polymer chains end functionalized with the first functionalizing compound;
• c. coupling the intermediary product from (b) with a second functionalizing compound selected from
• wherein B is boron, each R6 is independently selected from H and hydrocarbyl of C1-C20, and each X is a halogen,
• thereby forming a final product including functionalized diene monomer-containing polymers having a trans-bond content of no more than 60% and functionalized with both a first functionalizing group resulting from the first functionalizing compound and a second functionalizing group resulting from the second functionalizing compound.

A functionalized diene monomer-containing polymer comprising

• at least one polymer chain comprised of at least one conjugated diene monomer, optionally in combination with at least one vinyl aromatic monomer,
• wherein each polymer chain is functionalized at its chain end with at least a first functionalizing group and is coupled via the first functionalizing group to a second functionalizing group,
• wherein the first functionalizing group results from a first functionalizing compound selected from:
• i.
• wherein n is an integer of 0 to 16, or
• ii.
• wherein R1 is selected from H and hydrocarbyl of C1-C20,
• and R2 is selected from H and hydrocarbyl of C1-C20, and
• the second functionalizing group results from a second functionalizing compound selected from:
• wherein B is boron, each R6 is independently selected from H and hydrocarbyl of C1-C20, and each X is a halogen,
• and the first functionalizing group is present in a molar ratio of 1:1 to 6:1 compared to the second functionalizing group.