Polymer Testing - 2020
Polymer Testing - 2020
Polymer Testing - 2020
Polymer Testing
journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/polytest
Analysis Method
A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T
Keywords: A spectrophotometric method was developed for the selective estimation of titanium in alkoxide form in the
Spectrophotometric method presence of TiO2. Polymers like polybutylene terephthalate have been synthesized by using homogeneous
Titanium cresolate catalyst such as titanium tetra-isopropoxide (TTIP). These types of catalysts are susceptible to moisture and
Titanium alkoxide
convert to inactive TiO2. Hence, it is essential to have analytical method for selective estimation of alkoxide form
Titanium tetra-isopropoxide
Polybutylene terephthalate
of titanium. In this study, we have used O-cresol to convert TTIP to tetra O- cresyl titanate, a colored compound,
which was quantitatively analyzed by spectrophotometric technique. Polymer matrix was used in standard so-
lution to compensate the effect of matrix during UV-VIS measurements. Method validation was successfully
carried out for linearity, reproducibility, recovery, specificity and the observed acceptable results as per ICH
guidelines. 2-sample t-test was performed to check the variation observed between two analysts and the observed
p-value indicated the results were statistically similar to each other. Mechanism of color formation was estab-
lished by synthesis of colored complex called tetra O-cresyl titanate. The structure was supported by ICP, CHNS
and NMR analysis. The method is simple and easy to implement at manufacturing plant for initial monitoring of
active catalyst concentration in polymer/oligomer samples.
1. Introduction catalyst concentration does not remain stable and it becomes difficult to
maintain the catalytic activity. It is important for the process chemist to
Thermoplastic polymers such as terephthalates have been used know exact concentration of the catalyst (active form) prior to poly-
largely in plastic industries such as electrical, lighting, automotive, merization steps. If required, make up amount of TTIP can be added in
telecommunications, medical, food, appliances, business machines and the process to maintain the desired catalyst concentration. As discussed
textiles. Hence, the demand for polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) has earlier, in this process, titanium can be present in alkoxide form or TiO2
been growing tremendously [1–3]. To support the increasing demand, form. The investigation was focused on the quantitative estimation of
the producers are optimizing the PBT production process. Researchers the titanium alkoxide in the PBT polymer/oligomer matrix in the pres-
are screening different starting materials such as purified terephthalic ence of TiO2.
acid (PTA) or dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) [4]. PTA has several ad- Total Ti estimation can be done by ICP technique together with
vantages such as product quality and cost effectiveness, however, water ashing of sample followed by dissolution in H2SO4. However, this
is a byproduct of the reaction. Ti-based catalysts such as TTIP (titanium method cannot distinguish between TiO2 and alkoxide form of titanium.
tetraisopropoxide) are often used as a catalyst in the synthesis to The desired method should be able to distinguish between TiO2 and
accelerate the reaction by a factor of 100–1000 [5–7]. However, it has alkoxide form of titanium. These are homogenous catalysts and their
been observed that these catalysts degrade in the presence of water to concentration in polymerization reactions are in ppm level. The desired
form TiO2, which lead to reduced catalytic activity, increased quality method should have sufficient sensitivity to detect ppm level of titanium
issues and production cost for PBT [8,9]. alkoxide in oligomer/polymer samples. Here, we report a spectropho-
Due to the in-situ degradation in the presence of moisture, the tometric technique, which was developed to determine selectively,
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (K. Sattaiah Naidu).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymertesting.2020.106446
Received 1 October 2019; Received in revised form 27 January 2020; Accepted 15 February 2020
Available online 25 February 2020
0142-9418/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
K. Sattaiah Naidu et al. Polymer Testing 86 (2020) 106446
Fig. 1. Reaction of TTIP with O-cresol in presence of HCl (DCM was used as solvent).
catalytically active Ti content that is titanium alkoxide in oligomer/ flask then added 5 mL of o-cresol: DCM (3:1) mixture. Heated the so-
polymer samples. Early observations showed that O-cresol when reacted lution at 70 ! C till the PBT dissolves completely. Cooled the solution at
with TTIP, Titanium (IV) butoxide and Titanium (IV) ethoxide results to room temperature and added 100 μL of 3% HCl solution and mixed
give yellow to red colored complex. In this study, TTIP was selected for properly. Diluted the solution up to 25 mL with DCM.
the detailed analytical method development and validation study. In
short, the method involves the reaction of alkoxide form of Ti with o- 2.4. Preparation of blank solution (DMT matrix)
cresol & dichloromethane (DCM) mixture in HCl environment, resulting
into a stable yellow colored complex i.e. tetra O- cresyl titanate, which Weighed accurately about 0.12 g of DMT in 25 mL volumetric flask
was quantified by spectrophotometer at wavelength of 405 nm. DCM then added 5 mL of o-cresol: DCM (3:1) mixture. Heated the solution at
was used as solvent in this method. 70 ! C till DMT dissolves completely. Cooled the solution to room tem-
perature, added 100 μL of 3% HCl solution, and mixed thoroughly.
2. Experimental section Diluted the solution up to 25 mL with DCM.
All the chemicals used were AR grade. O-cresol, Dichloromethane Instrument was calibrated before use for the measurements. Cleaned
(DCM), Isopropyl alcohol (IPA), Hydrochloric acid (HCl), TTIP, Zirco- the cuvette and rinsed with the desired solution at least three times
nium (IV) propoxide, Germanium (IV) isopropoxide, Tin (IV) isoprop- before measuring. Filled the cuvette and kept in an appropriate place in
oxide, Titanium ethoxide and Titanium butoxide were procured from the instrument. Initially, performed auto-zero and baseline correction
Sigma-Aldrich. UV-2550 UV–Vis Spectrophotometer - Shimadzu or with blank solution and kept the blank solution in reference cuvette.
equivalent was used for the spectrophotometric measurement at wave- Measured the absorbance of different linearity levels and plot a cali-
length of 405 nm, slit width of 2 nm, threshold of 0.001, scan mode: bration curve. Measured the absorbance of sample solution against the
single and scan speed: medium. 1H and 13C spectra were obtained using blank at 405 nm utilizing a 1 cm path length cell. Calculated the con-
Avance Bruker 300 MHz instrument. centration of sample solution and then applied dilution factor to get final
concentration of active Ti in the sample.
Note that the UV–Vis spectrophotometer measurements of the solu-
2.2. Reagents
tions need to perform within 4 h of sample preparation.
O-cresol: DCM (3:1): To prepare 1000 mL of the solvent mixture,
2.6. Synthesis of tetra O- cresyl titanate
melt o-cresol in a water bath at 80 ! C. Mix 750 mL of o-cresol with 250
mL of DCM in a bottle and mix and cap it well.
Titanium tetracresolate synthesis was carried out in a 50 mL capacity
3% (V/V) HCl solution in Isopropyl alcohol: 1 mL of 30% suprapure
three neck-round bottom flask (RBF) dipped in oil bath. One neck of RBF
HCl was diluted to 10 mL with isopropyl alcohol.
was fitted with water condenser and oil bubbler. Thermo-well was fitted
in one neck to measure actual temperature of reaction mixture. Middle
2.3. Sample preparation neck of RBF was connected to distillation condenser to collect distillate
(isopropyl alcohol). Heidolph heating and stirring hotplate was pro-
2.3.1. Standard solution preparation vided for heating the oil bath. The equipment was provided with auto-
matic temperature control and variable stirrer speeds. o-cresol (8.634g,
2.3.1.1. Stock solution preparation. Added 631 μL of TTIP in 50 mL of 79.84 mmol) and titanium isopropoxide (5.153g, 18.13 mmol) were
IPA. Mixed thoroughly and diluted to 100 mL with IPA (Stock-1: 1000 weighed and added in 50 mL round bottom flask at room temperature
ppm of Ti). Diluted 5 mL–10 mL with IPA (Stock "2: 500 ppm). All the [10]. Reaction mixture was heated to 180 ! C for 2 h. Isopropyl alcohol
above manipulations were carried out in glove box under nitrogen (4.15g, 95.23% yield) was collected in collection vessel. Titanium tet-
atmosphere. racresolate (8.93g, 94.70% yield) catalyst along with cresol was ob-
tained as residue.
2.3.1.2. Calibration standard solutions preparation. Weighed 0.12 g of
DMT in five volumetric flask of 25 mL capacity. Added 5 mL of o-cresol: 3. Results and discussion
DCM (3:1) mixture and 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 μL of 500 ppm stock so-
lution for preparing 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1 and 2 ppm respectively (5 levels). This exercise refers to the development of a spectrophotometric
Heated the solution at 70 ! C until it dissolves completely. Cooled the method for selective determination of alkoxide form of titanium. The
solution to room temperature and added 100 μL of 3% HCl solution in method is based on the in-house observation of interaction of TTIP with
IPA. Mixed it thoroughly and diluted the solution up to 25 mL with DCM. phenol to give red color [10] The similar phenomenon was observed
when TTIP reacted with o-cresol: dichloromethane mixture. The plau-
2.3.2. PBT sample preparation sible mechanism of color development would be the formation of
Weighed accurately about 0.1 g of PBT sample in 25 mL volumetric tetra-O-cresyl titanate after reaction of TTIP with O-cresol as shown in
2
K. Sattaiah Naidu et al. Polymer Testing 86 (2020) 106446
3
K. Sattaiah Naidu et al. Polymer Testing 86 (2020) 106446
Table 1 The concept was tested on other metal isopropoxides such as Zirco-
Reproducibility study with Sample-X sample. nium (IV) propoxide, Tin (IV) isopropoxide and Germanium (IV) iso-
Replicate # Titanium content (ppm) propoxide and observed that only TTIP gave colored solution after
reaction with O-cresol [see Figure S5 of the Supporting Information].
Rep1 94.06
Rep2 102.13 Further, two other titanium alkoxides were tested such as titanium
Rep3 91.80 butoxide and titanium ethoxide and both titanium alkoxides showed
Rep4 94.49 reddish yellow color after reaction with O-cresol [see Figure S6 of the
Rep5 91.40 Supporting Information]. These observations suggested that the method
Rep6 88.91
Average 93.80
could be extrapolated to any titanium alkoxide catalysts.
STD DEV 4.55
%RSD 4.85 4. Conclusions
Table 4
Study on Moisture interference in Sample –X. CRediT authorship contribution statement
4
K. Sattaiah Naidu et al. Polymer Testing 86 (2020) 106446
[7] H. A Alidedeoglu, T. Ding, G Kannan, US Patent US 2014/0031457 A1, January 30, [10] F. Mijangos, F. Varona, N. Villota, Changes in solution color during phenol
2014,. oxidation by fenton reagent environ, Sci. Technol. 40 (2006) 5538–5543, https://
[8] D.A.H. Hanaor, I. Chironi, I. Karatchevtseva, G. Triani, C.C. Sorrell, Single and doi.org/10.1021/es060866q.
mixed phase TiO2 powders prepared by excess hydrolysis of titanium alkoxide, [11] S.C. Chaudhry, Anup Kumar, S.S. Bhatt, S. Neeraj, Synthesis and reactions of
Adv. Appl. Ceram. 111 (2012) 149–158, https://doi.org/10.1179/ tetrakis(4-methoxyphenoxo)titanium(IV), Synth. React. Inorg. Met. Org. Chem. 22
1743676111Y.0000000059. (1992) 1–9, https://doi.org/10.1080/15533179208020635.
[9] Chung Y. Kim, Hyun N. Cho, Young C. Kim, Process for the Preparation of
Polybutylene Terephthalate Based Polymer, US5237042 A, 1993.