New catalyst for the synthesis of poly(butylene terephthalate) with high thermo‐oxidative stability |
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| Authors: | Antonio Massa Arrigo Scettri Socrate Contessa Valeria Bugatti Simona Concilio Pio Iannelli |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Dipartimento di Chimica, Università di Salerno, Via S. Allende 84081 Baronissi, Salerno, Italy;2. Montefibre S.p.A., R&D, Contrada Pagliarone, Acerra, Napoli;3. Dipartimento di Ingegneria Chimica ed Alimentare, Università di Salerno, Via Ponte Don Melillo, Fisciano Salerno |
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| Abstract: | In this paper we report the employment of Ti(acac)2(O‐iPr)2 (titanium bisacetylacetonate diisopropylate) as a novel catalyst for the synthesis of poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT). Large scale synthesis of several polymers with the new catalytic system and with the standard catalyst Ti(O‐nBu)4 (titanium tetra‐n‐butylate) have been performed in a 20 L pilot plant. In the optimized reaction conditions, Ti(acac)2(O‐iPr)2 has shown significantly higher activity than standard catalyst, Ti(O‐nBu)4. Furthermore, a stabilized PBT has been synthesized in the presence of Ti(O‐nBu)4 as catalyst with the addition of the stabilizer U626. Then, the stability of the synthesized polymers toward thermo‐oxidation has been tested in a forced circulating air oven. The polymers obtained in the presence of Ti(acac)2(O‐iPr)2 system showed higher stability towards thermo‐oxidation than stabilized and not stabilized PBT, synthesized in the presence of Ti(O‐nBu)4. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 2007 |
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| Keywords: | PBT titanium stabilization |
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