Patent 7235615 was granted and assigned to The University of Akron on June, 2007 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A method is provided for synthesizing a polymer that has highly-functionalized chain-end moieties. The method functionalizes liquid rubber to terminate a metallic or organometallic initiated living polymer. After the living polymer has been terminated with the functionalized liquid rubber, the functionalities on the residue of the liquid rubber are preferably modified to yield more advantageous functionalities.