US 5,489,657 AGranted

Bulk process for making maleimide copolymers

AssigneeGeneral Electric Company

InventorsChen-Youn Sue, Gregory R. Prince, Stephen M. Campbell

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Abstract

A bulk process is provided for making maleimide copolymers. The process involves reacting a monomer mixture comprising a maleimide monomer compound, a vinyl aromatic compound and a vinyl cyanide compound in a continuous stirred tank reactor, and then further reacting the material in a plug flow reactor to obtain a desired conversion level, and then devolatizing the product. The process provides enhanced oligomer control and enhanced levels of glass transition temperature and other properties. The maleimide copolymer obtained by the process may be further blended with impact modifiers to produce thermoplastic compositions which are useful for making molded articles such as automotive parts for under the hood applications, such as distributor caps.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A bulk process for making a maleimide copolymer product comprising the steps of:

(a) reacting a maleimide monomer mixture in a continuous stirred tank reactor, said monomer mixture comprising a maleimide monomer and a comohomer selected from the group consisting of vinyl aromatic compounds, vinyl cyanide compounds and acrylate compounds to form a first product having a monomer conversion level of between 10 and 90 percent by weight based on the total weight of monomer in said monomer mixture,
(b) reacting said first product in a plug flow reactor to produce a second product having a monomer conversion level of at least 5 percent by weight greater than said first product based on the total weight of monomer in said monomer mixture, said second product having a monomer conversion level of between 50 and 95 percent by weight based on the total weight of said monomer mixture, and
(c) devolatilizing said second product to produce said maleimide copolymer product.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.