Amorphous Metallocene EPDM for Superior Low Temperature Properties

Sunny Jacob, Yann Devorest, Milind Joshi, Guy Wouters, Eric P. Jourdain, Mike Bednarik, and Mark F Welker*
Amorphous Metallocene EPDM for Excellent Low Temperature Properties
ABSTRACT
Ethylene-propylene rubbers and elastomers (also called EPM and EPDM elastomers) continue to be one of the most widely used and fastest growing synthetic rubbers having both specialty and general-purpose applications. Polymerization and catalyst technologies in use today provide the ability to design polymers to meet specific and demanding application and processing needs. EPDM polymerized by metallocene catalyst have been commercially available for about 10 years. This technology offers new opportunities to rubber compounders to develop components with tailored elastic properties due to the precise molecular architecture allowed by this catalyst platform.
This paper will review the recent advances in metallocene solution polymerization and will compare the physical properties of amorphous EPDM prepared by metallocene technology and conventional Ziegler Natta methods. Our results indicate that polymers with uniform compositional distribution and low ethylene content prepared by metallocene catalysts offer a balance of mechanical properties and low temperature elastic properties.
*Speaker