Polar polystyrene copolymers for enhanced foaming

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9914814-B2
Application number	US-201414533730-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 5, 2014
Priority date	Feb 10, 2011
Publication date	Mar 13, 2018
Grant date	Mar 13, 2018

Abstract

A method of making a foamable polystyrene composition includes combining a styrenic monomer and a co-monomer containing a polar functional group to obtain a mixture, subjecting the mixture to polymerization to obtain a styrenic co-polymer, and combining the styrenic co-polymer with a blowing agent in a foaming process to obtain foamed articles.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A polystyrene composition comprising:
a styrenic co-polymer resulting from polymerization of a reaction mixture comprising a styrenic monomer and from 0.5 to 20 wt % of a polar co-monomer comprising an alkyl methacrylate; and
a blowing agent comprising CO 2 , wherein the styrenic co-polymer exhibits increased solubility of CO 2 in comparison to a styrene polymer that is not modified with a co-monomer having a polar functional group;
wherein the majority of cells in the foam are open.

2. The polystyrene composition of claim 1 , wherein the styrenic monomer is selected from the group consisting of styrene, alpha-methyl styrene, vinyl toluene, p-methyl styrene, t-butyl styrene, o-chlorostyrene, vinyl pyridine, and any combinations thereof.

3. The polystyrene composition of claim 1 , wherein the polar co-monomer is present in amounts ranging from 0.5 to 10 wt % based on the total weight of the reaction mixture.

4. The polystyrene composition of claim 1 , wherein styrene is present in amounts ranging from 90 to 99 wt % based on the total weight of the styrenic co-polymer.

5. The polystyrene composition of claim 1 , wherein the blowing agent is entirely composed of the CO 2 .

6. The polystyrene composition of claim 1 , wherein the blowing agent further comprises water (H 2 O), ethanol, air, nitrogen, argon, helium or combinations thereof.

7. The polystyrene composition of claim 1 , wherein the blowing agent is present in the styrenic co-polymer in a weight proportion ranging from 1 to 30 parts per 100 parts of styrenic material.

8. The polystyrene composition of claim 1 , wherein the amount of polar comonomer in the reaction mixture is about 5%.

Assignees

• Fina Technology

Inventors

• Wang Wei
• Knoeppel David W
• Greenberg Melissa

Classifications

• C08J9/142

  Compounds containing oxygen but no halogen atom · CPC title

• C08J2325/08

  Copolymers of styrene (C08J2329/08, C08J2335/06, C08J2355/02 take precedence) · CPC title

• C08J2351/00

  Characterised by the use of graft polymers in which the grafted component is obtained by reactions only involving carbon-to-carbon unsaturated bonds; Derivatives of such polymers · CPC title

• C08J9/12

  by a physical blowing agent · CPC title

• C08F212/08

  Styrene · CPC title