Polyacetaldehyde elastomeric

This review discusses mainly our own work and points only briefly to major contributions from other laboratories. Amorphous elastomeric polyacetaldehyde will be discussed first. 

In addition to well-recognized cationic initiators for the solution polymerization of acetaldehyde (50, 51, 52) more specialized systems for preparing elastomeric polyacetaldehyde have been uncovered. They include the polymerization of acetaldehyde by condensing the monomer onto 7-alumina (17, 18, 19, 21) from the vapor phase or polymerization with acid-treated oxide supports (43, 54), the use of phosphines (20) as initiator and polymerization by x-rays (41) and 7-rays (8). 

The thermal stability of elastomeric polyacetaldehyde could be improved by end-capping the hydroxyl end groups with acetic anhydride in order to prevent chain unzipping. Further stabilization was obtained by adding polyamide as a thermal stabilizer and an aromatic amine antioxidant. 

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