Company claims new catalysis technology will produce “breakthrough” flexible olefins

The latest development from Dow Chemical Company’s Insite catalyst technology promises to deliver a new family of olefin block copolymers (OBCs) that could challenge EVAs, styrene block copolymers and even TPVs in certain applications.

The Infuse family of OBC polymers combines the company’s highly specific Insite catalysts with a new polymerisation component – a chain shuttling agent – that allows it to combine “hard” blocks of high melting point polymer with “soft” blocks of flexible polymer in a single chain in a continuous process.

The result is a family of flexible olefinic polymers claimed to display properties unattainable with current olefin polymerisation tehniques. The company says an Infuse 75 Shore A grade will deliver a 50-60C improvement in melting point and crystallisation temperature compared with conventional random ethylene copolymers.

Permanent set performance will be similar to styrene block copolymers, compression set approaching some TPV grades, said Dow. The company is operating a pre-market production unit at its plant at Freeport, Texas, from where it is delivering sample products to selected end user companies. Commercial grades are expected to be launched into the market later this year.

Dow also this week announced a joint research agreement with Mitsui Chemicals to develop catalyst systems for OBC production. According to Kurt Swogger, vice president of R&D for Dow’s performance plastics and chemicals portfolio, the agreement will help expand potential for this new class of polymers.