This route for manufacture of alkyds, shown in Figure 2.9, is not widely used, and is only used when the diacid is insoluble in a reaction mixture or has a high melting point, for example, long oil alkyds based on terephthaleic acid or isophthalic acid. The reaction requires high temperature (270 to 290 °C) to attain perfect compatibility. Due to high temperature, some side reactions such as dimerization of the oil are inevitable.
Figure 2.9: Schematic representation of acidolysis process for alkyd resins |