Abstract
The polymerization of linoleic acid, and its methyl ester, in the presence of thionyl chloride was studied under various conditions. It was found that the polymers were obtained in high yields and the maximum polymer content of the product under the following reaction condition was about 75% in the case of using the methyl ester as starting material : catalyst concentration 0.5 wt%, reaction temperature 300°C, and reaction time 20 hr. The polymer content of the product obtained from linoleic acid was smaller than that of the product from methyl linoleate under the same reaction conditions.
The dimer separated from reaction product by molecular distillation was catalytically dehydrogenated. From the results of analyses of the dehydrogenated dimer, it was confirmed that the polymerization involved mainly the Diels-Alder reaction. Moreover, the above results and other information showed that some other type of polymerization reaction seemed to occur.
