Crosslinkable ethylene copolymer powders and processes
AssigneeQuantum Chemical Corporation
InventorsManfred Heimberg, Daniel J. Ondrus
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Abstract
The present invention relates to crosslinkable microfine ethylene copolymer powders which are substantially spherical in shape and range in size from about 10 up to about 500 microns and to the process of crosslinking the powders to reduce their melt flow rate. The powders are crosslinked by contacting with water in the presence of a silanol condensation catalyst at temperatures from ambient up to about 110.degree. C. The reduction in melt flow rate is accomplished without substantially changing the powder characteristics, i.e., particle size and particle size distribution.
Claims9
A crosslinkable microfine olefin copolymer powder having a melt flow rate greater than 1 produced in an aqueous dispersion process and comprised of particles which are spherical or substantially spherical in shape with 80 percent or more of the particles ranging in size from 10 microns to 500 microns, said olefin copolymer comprised of 80 to 99.75 weight percent f an .alpha.- olefin having from 2 to 8 carbon atoms and 0.25 to 20 weight percent of an unsaturated alkoxysilane of the formula
- R--Si(R*).sub.n (Y).sub.3-n
- where R is an ethylenically unsaturated hydrocarbon radical having from 2 to 6 carbon atoms, R.sup.* is a hydrocarbon radical having from 1 to 10 carbon atoms, Y is an alkoxy group having from 1 to 4 carbon atoms and n is an integer from 0 to 2.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.