Gasoline composition

Abstract

Abstract Novel gasoline compositions comprising gasoline and dissolved or dispersed therein small quantities of from about 0.5 to about 100 parts by weight of a driveability-enhancing fluorine-containing polymer per million parts of gasoline will, after carburetion in a multicylinder automobile engine, plate out a fluoropolymeric deposit on the interior surfaces of the intake manifold of the engine thereby establishing on the manifold metal surface a coating of low wettability by any hydrocarbon gasoline component, either aliphatic or aromatic, and significantly improving the driveability performance of the engine. The driveability-enhancing fluorine-containing polymers useful in the gasoline compositions of the invention are characterized in that they must (1) have a critical surface tension of <17 dynes/centimeter at 25° C, (2) have a high contact angle of at least 40° to toluene at 22° C, (3) contain fluorine in the range of from about 20 to about 65% by weight and (4) have a minimum solubility in gasoline of at least about 5 parts by weight per million. Illustrative examples of fluorine-containing polymers which have these properties and are useful in the compositions include homopolymers of esters of fluorine-containing alcohol and monoethylenically unsaturated lower monocarboxylic or corresponding thio acid or copolymers of said fluorine-containing esters and a monoethylenically unsaturated non-fluorinated monomer selected from the group consisting of acrylic acid derivatives, alpha-olefins and other vinyl compounds. Also a method is provided for improving the driveability of an automobile by operating its internal combustion engine on the above novel gasoline compositions.

Inventors

• 👤 John L. Laity

Bibliographic Details