Polyisobutylene and Butyl Rubber Synthesis with High Productive Efficiency

Polyisobutylene and Butyl Rubber Synthesis with high productive efficiency

Yixian Wu, HaiKui Zou, Jianfeng Chen

State Key Lab of Chemical Resource Engineering, Research Center of Ministry of Education for High Gravity Engineering and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing P.R. China 100029

Polyisobutylene or butyl rubber, one of the most important industrial polymers with advantaged properties, is merely produced via cationic polymerization. The cationic polymerization features an extremely rapid intrinsic reaction rate with apparent reaction rate affected significantly by micromixing. Micromixing is the final stage of turbulent mixing and consists of the viscous-convective deformation of fluid elements, followed by molecular diffusion.

On the basis of analysis of key engineering factors predominating in cationic polymerization, butyl rubber  as an example was synthesized by cationic polymerization in the high-gravity environment with good micromixing performance. It is of significant importance to improve the productive efficiency and quality of products. The cationic polymerization of isobutylene and its copolymerization with isoprene were conducted in a reactor with a high-gravity environment via the action of centrifugal force. The optimum experimental conditions and process were examined. Polyisobutylenes and butyl rubber with different molecular weights, monomodal molecular weight distributions could be prepared. The polymerization reached relatively high yield in very short residence time (≤1s) in the reactor, leading to high productive efficiency.

* This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 20934001).