A New Polyisobutylene Based Thermoplastic Elastomer

A new polyisobutylene based thermoplastic elsatomer has been developed by the copolymerization of Alloocimene with Isobutylene. The resulting copolymer has a chain structure with diblock character, where the soft part is the polyisobutylene portion and the hard segment is the polyalloocimene portion.¹Despite of the diblock character the material exhibits thermoplastic elastomeric properties, with close to 6MPa tensile strength and 1000 % strain at break. The polymer also exhibits strong filler interaction.

Isobutylene has been used as the soft segments of thermoplastic elastomers prior², however in each case the structure of the polymer was either triblock³ or brached². The former composition has been used to develop the coating of the coronary stent³, whereas the latter material is currently under investigation for breast implant material replacement.

Thus the presented thermoplastic elastomer has a potential to be used for a wide range of application ranging from commercial rubber product to biomaterial for biomedical devices and implants.

References

 

(1)	Puskas, J.E.; Kaszas, G.; Gergely, A.L. US Patent Application # 61/587,736. January, 2011.
(2)	Puskas, J. E.; Dos Santos, L. M.; Kaszas, G. ; Kulbaba, K. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem., 2009,  47(4),  1148-1158.
(3)	Kennedy, J. P., Kaszas, G., Puskas, J. E., Hager, W. G. U.S. 4,946,899. 1990. FDA Approval for drug-eluting coronary stent application (to Boston Scientific Co., 2004); in commercial production (Kaneka Inc., BASF AG)