Styrene/Butadiene Copolymer Synthesized by Reactive Extrusion

In this study, we present a method to synthesize styrene-butadiene copolymer, using anionic polymerization in a co-rotating closely intermeshing twin-screw extruder. The weight content of polybutadiene in these copolymers was above 50% although in the past studies it had been possible to accomplish levels higher than 30%. ^1H-NMR and GPC show that the molecular structure of the two polymers is different due to different feeding method. In terms of the structure of the polymerized products, the mechanism of polymerization in the bulk polymerization is discussed. TEM and DMA show that two phases in the block copolymer are completely incompatible, leading to sharp phase separation, while the case is complicated in the copolymer through the mixture feeding. Traditionally, styrene-butadiene rubber is mainly synthesized by solution polymerization. Reactive extrusion in this paper provides a possibility to synthesize these products in an environmentally friendly way.