US 12,479,968 B2
Process for fragmenting a polymer
David James Wilson, Coye-la-Forêt (FR); Alexander Lerch, Gelnhausen (DE); Fan Jiang, Yunnan (CN); Bing Hong, Shanghai (CN); and Stephane Streiff, Shanghai (CN)
Assigned to SPECIALTY OPERATIONS FRANCE, Lyons (FR)
Appl. No. 17/787,919
Filed by SPECIALTY OPERATIONS FRANCE, Lyons (FR)
PCT Filed Dec. 20, 2019, PCT No. PCT/CN2019/126880
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jun. 21, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/120149, PCT Pub. Date Jun. 24, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2023/0040771 A1, Feb. 9, 2023
Int. Cl. C08J 11/16 (2006.01)
CPC C08J 11/16 (2013.01) [C08J 2300/16 (2013.01)] 10 Claims
 
1. A process for fragmenting a polymer chain into chemical species of lower molecular weight than the polymer chain, the process comprising an oxidative degradation step wherein the polymer chain is contacted with a reduced form of a metal M and an oxidant,
wherein the polymer chain comprises chemical groups acting as a ligand of the reduced form of the metal M, the groups being covalently bound to the polymer, and
wherein the chemical groups acting as ligands are selected from the group consisting of polycarboxylates, amino acid, N-heteroaromatic chelators, polyamino chelators, phenolic chelators, and combinations thereof.