Macromer and process for making polymer polyols
AssigneeDow Global Technologies LLC
InventorsOguz Türünç, David A. Babb, Florian Puschman, Sven Claessens, Antoon De Smet
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Abstract
Polyether polyols are prepared by polymerizing unsaturated monomers in a continuous phase of a base polyol. A macromer or polymerization produce of such a macromer is present during the polymerization to stabilize the polymer particles as they form. The macromer is a polyether capped with certain unsaturated epoxide compounds.
Claims14
A process for making a polymer polyol, comprising polymerizing one or more low molecular weight ethylenically unsaturated monomers that have a molecular weight of no greater than 150 in a continuous liquid polyol phase and in the presence of a stabilizer to form a dispersion of solid polymer particles in the continuous liquid polyol phase, wherein the stabilizer includes (i) a macromer produced in a reaction of a hydroxyl-containing polyether with an epoxide compound having a polymerizable carbon-carbon double bond;
- (ii) a pre-formed polymer formed by polymerizing a carbon-carbon double bond of such macromer, or (iii) a mixture of (i) and (ii) wherein the epoxide compound is represented by structure I:
- where a is a positive number, R is a covalent bond or an organic linking group and R1 is hydrogen or hydrocarbyl group having up to 6 carbon atoms.
A method of producing a capped polyether, comprising the steps of a) producing a polyether in the presence of an alkali metal hydroxide or an alkali metal alkoxide polymerization catalyst to produce a polyether having terminal —O−M+ moieties, which M represents an alkali metal, and b) combining the polyether having terminal —O−M+ moieties with an epoxide compound, and reacting the polyether and epoxide compound to produce a capped polyether, wherein the epoxide compound is represented by structure I:
- where a is a positive number, R is a covalent bond or an organic linking group and R1 is hydrogen or hydrocarbyl group having up to 6 carbon atoms.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.