Process for continuously producing ε-caprolactone polymer
AssigneeDaicel Chemical Industries, Ltd.
InventorsJun Watanabe, Shigeyuki Yoshida
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A process for the continuous production of an ε-caprolactone polymer characterized by including heating an ε-caprolactone under reduced pressure or in an inert gas stream to volatilize the unreacted ε-caprolactone from the polymer and cooling the vapor phase part containing the matter volatilized to thereby recover the unreacted ε-caprolactone, wherein the amount of the ε-caprolactone to be recovered is regulated to larger than 5 times by weight the amount of caprolactone dimer.
Claims8
A process for a continuous production of an ε-caprolactone polymer, which comprises:
- heating an ε-caprolactone polymer under reduced pressure or in an inert gas stream to volatilize unreacted ε-caprolactone from the polymer;
- and
- cooling a vapor phase part containing a matter volatilized to thereby recover the unreacted ε-caprolactone,
- wherein the amount of ε-caprolactone to be recovered is regulated to larger than 5 times by weight relative to the amount of caprolactone dimer, and
- wherein the ε-caprolactone polymer is a copolymer of a polymer having a hydroxyl group and/or an ester bond and ε-caprolactone.
A process for a continuous production of an ε-caprolactone polymer, which comprises:
- a polymerization step for performing a ring-opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone singly or with a polymer having a hydroxyl group and/or an ester bond;
- a monomer-removing step which includes heating an ε-caprolactone polymer under reduced pressure or in an inert gas stream in a treatment apparatus (1) to volatilize a matter to be volatilized containing ε-caprolactone and caprolactone dimer from the polymer;
- and
- a recovering step which includes cooling a vapor phase part containing a matter volatilized in a recovering apparatus (3) to recover ε-caprolactone as a liquid, wherein:
- (i) the cooling temperature is regulated;
- (ii) the polymerization condition is regulated;
- and/or
- (iii) ε-caprolactone is added to the treatment apparatus (1) and/or the recovering apparatus (3)
- so that the amount of ε-caprolactone to be recovered is regulated to larger than 5 times by weight relative to the amount of caprolactone dimer to prevent clogging in the recovering step.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.