Polyethylene – polystyrene cationic copolymerization in near-critical medium

MARTINI, RAQUEL; BRIGNOLE, ESTEBAN; BARBOSA, SILVIA

Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

Congreso; Macro 2006. World Polymer Congress. 41st International Symposium on Macromolecules.; 2006

Commercial linear low-density polyethylene - polystyrene copolymerization was carried out using high pressure-high temperature n-heptane, as a solvent and swelling agent. The hydrocarbon chain was chemically bonded to the styrene ring through an aromatic electrophilic substitution, by the use of aluminum chloride (AlCl3) as catalyst. At these conditions the polyethylene was solubilized by the n-heptane, and the viscosity was strong reduced. In this way, the transport of the catalyst and the contact between reactants was improved. The products were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). The effect of the amount of catalyst added was studied varying the content from 1 to 5-wt% of AlCl3, and kept constant the other variables (PE/styrene weight relation, pressure, temperature and solvent volume).