Design and Synthesis of Olefin Copolymers with Tunable Amounts of Comonomers Bearing Stabilizing Functionalities

The aim of this work is to search for innovative solutions to avoid physical migration of the stabilizers from plastic films. New families of macromolecular additives bearing tuned amounts of a selected functionality were explored, in particular, novel random copolymers of ethylene with 1‐olefin co‐units bearing an efficient antioxidant and/or anti‐UV moiety covalently bonded to a mono‐ or disubstituted olefinic bond. Polyolefin blends containing the novel macromolecular additives showed higher degradation temperatures with respect to the neat matrix and its blends with 2,6‐t‐butyl‐4‐methoxyphenol (BHA). Aging tests showed that the novel antioxidants also constitute a protection against photo‐oxidation. The present research proposes the design and synthesis of monomers bearing stabilizing functionalities and their copolymerization with ethylene to obtain non‐releasing polymeric additives. Such materials can be added to commercial polyolefins to prepare films characterized by stability to auto‐ and photo‐oxidation, with reduced, or eliminated risk of migration of the stabilizer into the contact food.