| Abstract: | Ethylene–propylene copolymerization, using (Ph)NC(R2)CHC(R1)O]2TiCl2 (R1 = CF3, Ph, or t‐Bu; R2 = CH3 or CF3) titanium complexes activated with modified methylaluminoxane as a cocatalyst, was investigated. High‐molecular‐weight ethylene–propylene copolymers with relatively narrow molecular weight distributions and a broad range of chemical compositions were obtained. Substituents R1 and R2 influenced the copolymerization behavior, including the copolymerization activity, methylene sequence distribution, molecular weight, and polydispersity. With small steric hindrance at R1 and R2, one complex (R1 = CF3; R2 = CH3) displayed high catalytic activity and produced copolymers with high propylene incorporation but low molecular weight. The microstructures of the copolymers were analyzed with 13C NMR to determine the methylene sequence distribution and number‐average sequence lengths of uninterrupted methylene carbons. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 5846–5854, 2006 |
