Patent 7476718 was granted and assigned to E.I. Du Pont De Nemours And Company on January, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A process for the polymerization of formaldehyde, comprising contacting formaldehyde in a hydrocarbon solution with an aliphatic anhydride and a quaternary ammonium salt polymerization initiator of the formula:R1R2R3R4N+X−where R1 is an aliphatic or olefinic hydrocarbon group containing about 18 to about 25 carbon atoms; R2, R3, and R4 are each methyl, ethyl, and/or propyl, such that the total number of carbon atoms in R2, R3, and R4 combined is between 3 and 7; and X− is an organic anion.