Blends of biorenewable polyamides and methods of making the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9290658-B2
Application number	US-201414448903-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 31, 2014
Priority date	Jul 31, 2013
Publication date	Mar 22, 2016
Grant date	Mar 22, 2016

Abstract

The invention discloses a method to produce a blended polymer by mixing polyamide 11 and polyamide 6, 10. The method may be utilize melt mixing or may utilize blended solutions. The invention also includes a blended polymer, wherein the blended polymer is produced from polyamide 11 and polyamide 6,10.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for producing a blended polyamide material, comprising:
melting a polyamide 6, 10 to produce a melted polyamide 6, 10;
adding a polyamide 11 to the melted polyamide 6, 10 to produce a melted polyamide mixture;
adding at least one stabilization agent to the melted polyamide mixture to produce a melted stabilized polyamide mixture; and
evaporating the at least one stabilization agent to produce the blended polyamide material, wherein the blended polyamide material is thermodynamically miscible.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the blended polyamide material comprises between about 1 wt % to about 65 wt % of polyamide 6, 10.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the blended polyamide material comprises between about 35 wt % to about 99 wt % of polyamide 11.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the polyamide 6, 10 is renewable.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the polyamide 11 is about 100% biorenewable.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the blended polyamide material has a renewable carbon content between about 63% to about 100%.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one stabilization agent is selected from the group consisting of toluene, and m-cresol.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the melting occurs at a melting temperature between about 200° C. and about 300° C.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the melting occurs for 10 minutes.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising preparing the polyamide 11 by vacuum drying at a pressure of between about 1 psi and about 15 psi, at a temperature between about 60° C. and about 100° C., for a duration of between about 12 hours to about 30 hours.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein between about 0.1 wt % and about 0.40 wt % of the at least one stabilization agent in the melted polyamide mixture is used.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising cooling the blended polyamide material to about room temperature.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising comminuting blended polyamide material into pellets.

14. A thermodynamically miscible, biorenewable polyamide blend with varying renewable carbon content, comprising:
polyamide 11; and
polyamide 6, 10.

15. The polyamide blend of claim 14 , wherein storage moduli of the biorenewable polyamide blend is between about 1.9 GPA and about 2.5 GPA.

16. The polyamide blend of claim 14 , wherein the impact strength of the biorenewable polyamide blend is between about 43 J/m and about 71 J/m.

17. A method of solution blending a blended polymer, comprising:
mixing polyamide 11 and polyamide 6, 10 with a stabilizing agent to prepare a polymer solution; and
drying the polymer solution to produce the blended polymer, wherein the blended polymer is thermodynamically miscible.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the mixing occurs at a temperature between about 200° C. and about 300° C.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein the stabilizing agent is selected from the group consisting of toluene, and m-cresol.

20. The method of claim 17 , wherein at least a portion of the polyamide 6, 10 is renewable.

Assignees

• Dorgan John R
• Ruehle David A
• Colorado School Of Mines

Inventors

• Dorgan John R
• Ruehle David A

Classifications

• C08J3/005

  Processes for mixing polymers · CPC title

• C08J2377/06

  Polyamides derived from polyamines and polycarboxylic acids (C08J2377/10 takes precedence) · CPC title

• C08J2377/02

  Polyamides derived from omega-amino carboxylic acids or from lactams thereof (C08J2377/10 takes precedence) · CPC title

• C08L77/06 Primary

  Polyamides derived from polyamines and polycarboxylic acids (C08L77/10 takes precedence) · CPC title

• C08L77/02

  Polyamides derived from omega-amino carboxylic acids or from lactams thereof (C08L77/10 takes precedence) · CPC title