Continuous removal of the catalyst from polyphenylene ethers

US4654418A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• BASF SE

Inventors

• Rosemarie Berger · Schifferstadt, DE
• Hermann Dreher · Seeheim-Jugenheim, DE
• Juergen Hambrecht · Heidelberg, DE
• Eduard Heil · Schifferstadt, DE
• Rudi W. Reffert · Beindersheim, DE
• Johann Swoboda · Ludwigshafen, DE
• Adolf Echte · Ludwigshafen, DE
• Peter Siebel · Schifferstadt, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Jul 5, 1984
• Grant date: Mar 31, 1987
• Expiry date: Jul 5, 2004

Classification

• Technology area (CPC C): Chemistry; Metallurgy
• CPC primary: C08G65/46
• WIPO field: Macromolecular chemistry, polymers
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

The catalyst is removed in the preparation of high molecular weight polyphenylene ethers from monohydric phenols, which are alkyl-substituted at the two ortho-positions but not at the para-position and may or may not be alkyl-substituted at the meta-position, by an oxidative coupling reaction with oxygen at from 15.degree. to 50.degree. C. in the presence of a catalyst complex obtained from a copper salt and an organic amine, in the presence of from 1 to 20 parts by weight of a solvent per part by weight of the monomeric phenol, and in the presence or absence of an activator, and removal of the metal component of the catalyst from the polyphenylene ether solution with a complex-forming or chelate-forming compound in aqueous solution, in the presence or absence of reducing and stabilizing substances and assistants for accelerating the interphase reactions and for phase separation, by a method in which the continuous removal of the copper catalyst is carried out in one or more mixer-settler stages at a phase volume ratio of the organic phase to the aqueous phase of from 1:0.1 to 1:1.0, preferably from 1:0.4 to 1:0.6.