Process for making cured foamed articles from epoxidized diene polymers

Abstract

A process for curing and foaming epoxidized diene polymers which comprises contacting the polymer with a nonaromatic anhydride curing agent at an epoxy/anhydride molar ratio from 0.6 to 1.4 and from 2 to 10 phr of an accelerator at a temperature of from 100° to 200° C. for a period of 10 minutes to six hours.

I claim: 
     
       1. A process of making a cured foamed article from an epoxidized diene polymer which comprises contacting the polymer with a partially or fully saturated nonaromatic anhydride curing agent at an epoxy/anhydride molar ratio of from 0.6 to 1.4 and from 2 to 10 pbw of an accelerator at a temperature of from 100° to 200° C. for a period of 10 minutes to 6 hours. 
     
     
       2. The process of claim 1 wherein the curing agent is selected from the group consisting of substituted and nonsubstituted hydrophthalic anhydrides. 
     
     
       3. The process of claim 2 wherein the curing agent is selected from the group consisting of methyltetrahydrophthalic anhydride, hexahydrophthalic anhydride, and dodecenylphthalic anhydride. 
     
     
       4. The process of claim 1 where the structure of the epoxidized polydiene is (HO) x  --A--S z  --B--(OH) y  wherein A and B are polymer blocks which may be homopolymer blocks of conjugated diolefin monomers, copolymer blocks of conjugated diolefin monomers, or copolymer blocks of diolefin monomers and monoalkenyl aromatic hydrocarbon monomers. 
     
     
       5. The process of claim 4 where x=0, y=1, z=0, and block B is comprised of styrene and butadiene and block A is comprised of isoprene. 
     
     
       6. The process of claim 4 where x=0, y=0, z=0, and block B is comprised of butadiene and block A is comprised of isoprene. 
     
     
       7. The process of claim 1 wherein the epoxidized diene polymer contains from 0.1 to 7.0 meq/g of epoxy per gram of polymer. 
     
     
       8. The process of claim 1 wherein the accelerator is selected from the group consisting of 2-ethyl-4-methyl-imidazole and benzyl-dimethyl-amine. 
     
     
       9. The process of claim 1 wherein the temperature ranges from 130° C. to 160° C. 
     
     
       10. A foamed article from an epoxidized diene polymer produced by the process of claim 1. 
     
     
       11. A crosslinked epoxidized polydiene polymer wherein the crosslinking in the polymer is through nonaromatic ester linkages and the polymer contains from 0.1 to 7.0 meq per gram of original epoxidized polymer of said ester linkages. 
     
     
       12. A pressure sensitive adhesive composition comprising the crosslinked polymer of claim 10 and a tackifying resin. 
     
     
       13. A sealant composition comprising the crosslinked polymer of claim 11. 
     
     
       14. A structural adhesive composition comprising the crosslinked polymer of claim 11.