Durability of polydicyclopentadiene under high temperature, high pressure and seawater (offshore oil production conditions)

In the offshore industry polymer coatings are widely used to ensure thermal insulation of steel pipes, and to avoid over-cooling of the hot oil inside. Because of very severe service conditions (i.e. high temperature, high pressure and presence of seawater) and an expected life time of 20 years, durability of these coatings is a major issue for this industry. Polypropylene and polyurethane are often used for this application, nevertheless these polymers have some limitations in terms of processing time for polypropylene and maximum service temperature for polyurethane. Polycyclopentadiene (pDCPD) shows good processing characteristics and low thermal conductivity, so this polymer could be a good alternative coating in the offshore industry, but the durability of this polymer under offshore conditions is unknown. This paper present results from an accelerated ageing study of pDCPD in seawater at temperatures from 90 °C to 180 °C for 18 months. Polymer evolution during ageing is characterized using both mechanical (tensile test and DMA) and chemical (FTIR, NMR) analyses. For ageing at temperatures below Tg (i.e. 155 °C) the only degradation mechanism is oxidation, whereas for ageing temperatures above Tg secondary polymerization process of the material is observed.