Hydroxyl-terminated liquid polymers and process for preparation thereof using a mixture of at least one hydroxyl-containing disulfide and at least one hydroxyl-containing trisulfide

Claim 1

A process for preparing a hydroxyl-terminated liquid polymer having an aliphatic polymeric backbone, said process comprising thermal polymerization in a single step of (1) at least one vinylidene monomer having at least one terminal CH 2 ═C< group, together with (2) at least one hydroxyl-containing disulfide having the formula HO(C.sub.n H.sub.2n O).sub.m (C.sub.n H.sub.2n).sub.p --(S).sub.g --(C.sub.n H.sub.2n).sub.p (OC.sub.n H.sub.2n).sub.m OH or ##STR9## wherein m is an integer from 0 to 10, n and p are integers from 1 to 10, and g is 2, and (3) at least one hydroxyl-containing trisulfide having the formulas above, except that g is 3, the amount of said trisulfide constituting from about 1 wt.% to about 25 wt.% of the total amount of said trisulfide and disulfide, wherein (4) said vinylidene monomer is selected from the group consisting of (a) monoolefins containing 2 to 14 carbon atoms, (b) dienes containing 4 to 10 carbon atoms, (c) vinyl and allyl esters of carboxylic acids containing 2 to 8 carbon atoms, (d) vinyl and allyl ethers of alkyl radicals containing 1 to 8 carbon atoms, and (e) acrylic acids and acrylates having the formula ##STR10## said R being hydrogen or an alkyl radical containing 1 to 3 carbon atoms, and R 1 being hydrogen or an alkyl radical containing 1 to 18 carbon atoms, or an alkoxyalkyl, alkylthioalkyl or cyanoalkyl radical containing 2 to 12 carbon atoms.