The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 27, 2003
Filed:
Aug. 08, 2001
Patrick Joseph McCloskey, Watervliet, NY (US);
Alberto Nisoli, Niskayuna, NY (US);
Warren William Reilly, Northvillew, NY (US);
General Electric Company, Niskayuna, NY (US);
Abstract
Polycarbonates having a high level of endcapping and containing a low level of Fries rearrangement product are prepared from dihydroxy aromatic compounds, such as bisphenol A, and diaryl carbonates such as diphenyl carbonate in a two stage process involving a tetraalkyl phosphonium carboxylate catalyzed oligomerization of the reactants in a first reaction stage followed by the addition of an alkali metal hydroxide co-catalyst in the second stage of the polymerization reaction. The late addition of the co-catalyst provides improved polymerization reaction rates as judged by higher polycarbonate molecular weights. The amount of alkali metal hydroxide co-catalyst is small thus avoiding the formation of excessive amounts of Fries product. The method has been used to provide Fries product levels between 200 and 800 parts per million in polycarbonates having M values between 7,500 and 8,500 Daltons.