In-Chain Functionalized Polybutadiene

A functionalized polybutadiene polymer was developed by incorporating a tertiary-amine containing monomer into the polymer backbone via anionic polymerization. In-chain functionalization has a major advantage over chain-end functionalization due to the ability to tune the number of functional groups per polymer chain. Furthermore, unlike chain-end functionalization, no post polymerization functionalization step is necessary, thus further simplifying the process. Resulting polymer was found to have good performance in both miscible and immiscible blend in silica tire formulations.