Chemical reactions and reactivity of primary,secondary, and tertiary diamines with acid functionalized polymers

Reactive melt processing of different types of diamines with polyethylene containing carboxylic acid groups and polystyrene containing anhydride groups was carried out. The reactivity of primary, secondary, and tertiary diamines with these acid polymers was determined using various techniques. Molecular weight increases due to crosslinking were observed through (1) changes in the torque during the reactive processing, (2) decrease in melt flow indices, and (3) decrease in solubility of the reaction products. The chemical compositions of the reaction products were examined by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Thermal analysis using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was carried out to determine the crystallization behavior, glass transition temperatures, and thermal stabilities of the reaction products. Results show that the primary amine is the most reactive towards carboxylic acid or anhydride groups followed by the secondary and then the tertiary amine. Anhydride groups on polymers are of higher activity towards secondary or primary amino groups than carboxylic acid groups in the nucleophilic acyl substitution reactions. Reaction products crosslinked with the primary diamine are less stable than their parent acidic polymers. On the other hand, crosslinking with the secondary or tertiary diamine gives products with higher thermal stability than the parent acidic polymers. The formation of reversible and irreversible crosslinks with different types of diamines is also reported. © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.