Journal of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, 2020, 8, 39-51 https://www.scirp.org/journal/msce ISSN Online: 2327-6053 ISSN Print: 2327-6045 DOI: 10.4236/msce.2020.83003 Mar. 6, 2020 39 Journal of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering Effects of the Catalytic System MoO 2 (acac) 2 -TBHP in Polyisoprene Epoxidation Using Experimental Design José R. Gregório, Elisa Barbosa-Coutinho, Annelise E. Gerbase, Márcia Pires Fortes Ferreira, Marly A. M. Jacobi Instituto de Química, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil Abstract The epoxidation of polydienes yields materials with improved properties, which can be tuned by the control of the epoxidation degree. In this work, we retake a known process, the epoxidation of polyisoprene, by a different ap- proach, in which the quantification of parameters influencing the epoxida- tion, such as temperature, oxidant and catalyst concentration, and reaction time degree is evaluated. We measured the influence of each parameter, al- lowing anyone who aims a polymer with a certain degree of epoxidation to choose which conditions are best suitable for reaching his goal. Keywords Epoxidation, Molybdenum, Polyisoprene, Experimental Design 1. Introduction Polymers like polybutadiene, polyisoprene and SBR present some disadvantages on their application due to their high permeability to gases and their low resis- tance to oil exposure. In order to circumvent these disadvantages, chemical mod- ifications on their polymeric structure have been proposed, such as the intro- duction of different functional groups [1] [2]. The introduction of epoxy groups on the polymeric chain is one of the best ways to modify polydienes, generating materials with reduced unsaturation levels, with properties like lower air per- meability, higher oil, solvents and shearing resistances and better compatibility with other polymers such as PVC. This allows their application on the manufac- ture of tires, adhesives with high melting point and surface coatings [3]. Varying the epoxidation degree, it is possible to obtain rubbers with different How to cite this paper: Gregório, J.R., Barbosa-Coutinho, E., Gerbase, A.E., Ferreira, M.P.F. and Jacobi, M.A.M. (2020) Effects of the Catalytic System MoO 2 (acac) 2 -TBHP in Polyisoprene Epoxidation Using Experi- mental Design. Journal of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, 8, 39-51. https://doi.org/10.4236/msce.2020.83003 Received: January 22, 2020 Accepted: March 3, 2020 Published: March 6, 2020 Copyright © 2020 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access