Ascend Performance Materials Announces Full Scale Production of Hexatran Trifunctional Amine

Ascend Performance Materials’ Specialty Chemicals division has announced that it has successfully produced its first full-scale production run of its newest trifunctional amine Hexatran. Customer testing of the amine has been active over the past two years and is now being commercialized into finished products out of Ascend’s Decatur, Alabama facility.

Hexatran’s functional performance spans a wide range of market segments and applications, including coatings, asphalt, oil and gas, agrochem, adhesives, plastic additives, mining and water treatment. Hexatran has a very low odor profile as well as a unique trifunctional amine structure that delivers unique performance in traditional applications.

“After many years of dedicated product development by the Ascend team and our customers, we are very pleased to announce the commercialization of Hexatran into the marketplace. We believe that Hexatran’s unique performance attributes combined with Ascend’s security of supply and competitive cost position will make it an ideal choice for our customers,” said Vice President of Specialty Chemicals Finlay Morrison.

Hexatran can be used to increase performance in epoxies, asphalt and isocyanates, including:

·         Epoxy: Hexatran’s chemical structure makes it an ideal replacement or supplement for other amines such as TETA, TEPA, DETA, and IPDA. It can be easily modified into other key derivatives. Its three primary amines provide improved curing time, chemical resistance and excellent flex.

·         Asphalt: Hexatran is used as an anti-strip to promote better adhesive of asphalt to aggregate and has better performance than other amines. Its low viscosity and low odor is a welcomed benefit to add to its performance.

·         Isocyanates: Hexatran’s unique aliphatic structure provides alternate routes to carbamates and isocyanates; and, isocyanates produced from Hexatran have low viscosity at high solids, promoting easy workability. Urethanes produced from Hexatran’s isocyanates also deliver excellent resistance to chemicals and weather.

As the world’s only large-scale converter of acrylonitrile to adiponitrile, Ascend Specialty Chemicals Division is uniquely positioned for the production of dozens of amines, acids, esters and intermediates used in a variety of end applications. Our integrated manufacturing processes allow us to produce a wide range of specialty chemicals which are used in hundreds of brand-name adhesives, coatings, cleansers and detergents.