Chemical modifications of some synthetic elastomers

The aim of this investigation was to prepare a thermoplastic elastomer via the chemical modification of an existing commercially produced polymer. Two separate polymer modification studies were carried out. In the first, solution polymerised polybutadiene and styrene-butadiene copolymers were hydrogenated and in the second, ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymers were anionically metalated and subsequently carboxylated or graft polymerised with styrene. Fundamental differences in the two techniques employed, hydrogenation and metalation, resulted in the emphasis of the two studies being somewhat different. Thus, the hydrogenation process was quite simple, enabling a systematic investigation of products to be carried out whereas the metalation process required considerable development resulting in only limited investigation of the products. [Continues.]