Sequential post-modifications of polybutadiene for industrial applications

Polybutadiene is a versatile starting material for polymer-analogous reactions because of the high content of easily accessed double bonds. It is a large scale polymeric product with relatively low costs. Polybutadiene may be tuned in its properties by consecutive chemical functionalizations to expand its range of applications. The polarity decreases content double bond hydrogenation and may be increased by the addition of heteroatoms to the olefinic entities. The functionalized of double bonds (e.g. to epoxides, aldehydes, carboxylates, hydroxyls or amines) opens the option of subsequent reactions in particular with nucleophilic reagents. This article focuses on post-modifications of polybutadiene homo-polymers by such sequential reactions and shows their relevance to applications.