Plastics Engineering - May 2014 - 32

A "Game-Changing" C18 Diacid for the Plastics
Industry?
New technology for making diacid building-blocks creates novel
polymer options

By Allyson Beuhler
Elevance Renewable Sciences, Inc., Woodridge, Illinois, USA

D

iacids are a commercially important class of chemicals, with tens of thousands of tonnes of diacids
produced annually and applications in a variety of
end uses. Elevance Renewable Sciences, Inc., a high-growth
specialty chemicals company, has commercialized a biobased diacid that will significantly broaden product portfolios
across a variety of industries from automotive and electronics to medical and sporting goods.
Elevance is making Inherent™ c18 diacid, also known as
octadecanedioic diacid or ODDA, using a unique and efficient
production process and materials produced from its worldscale biorefinery in gresik, Indonesia. the product is the first
based on the company's proprietary metathesis technology.
the process allows for the purity required for demanding
applications like polymers and is a solution that is costcompetitive with other specialty diacids in the marketplace.
A mid-chain diacid, the product enables performance
attributes not possible with more common, shorter-chain
diacids. "Inherent c18 Diacid is the most recent addition to
our growing line of bio-based commercial products that
can provide our customers with high-performance solutions for their markets," says Elevance cEO K'lynne Johnson.
"We now are advancing innovation in the plastics industry by
bringing to market new linear molecules that allow our customers to improve existing polymers and create completely
new polymers."

choosing the appropriate chain length. (Aliphatic diacids
are composed of two carboxylic acid functional groups
linked by an aliphatic hydrocarbon spacer; the general formula for this class of compound is HO2c(cH2)ncO2H, where
typically, n is between 0 and 22.)
Polyamide and polyurethane polymers from diacids are
typically produced by condensation polymerization.
Polyamides (PAs) range from very high melting point materials, such as PA6,6-to mid-chain length materials, such as
PA6,12-to the aliphatic long-chain diacid polyamides that
make up high-performance, hot-melt adhesives. Figure 1
shows some important commercial polyamides and their
range of melting temperatures.
c18 diacid enables polyamides with improved moisture
resistance, better optical transparency, and greater material toughness for new automotive and electronic applications.
Using it with polyester polyols helps polyurethane manu-

Uses for Diacids
Diacids are particularly useful building blocks in condensation polymerization applications. the variable aliphatic chain
length between the two carboxylic acid groups results in the
ability to achieve an assortment of physical properties. As
such, the properties of the products made can be tailored by

32

Figure 1: Commercial polyamides

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Plastics Engineering - May 2014

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