Ultrahigh Molecular Weight Ethene Copolymers from Metallocene and Ziegler Catalysts

In this study, ultrahigh molecular weight polyethene homopolymer and copolymer were successfully produced with the metallocene and the Ziegler catalyst system. In case with the metallocene catalyst system, viscosity average molecular weight of the homopolymer was controlled from 2 million to 10 million. Also, the molecular weight of the copolymer was reached up to 6 million. In case with the Ziegler catalyst system, the molecular weight of the copolymer was reached up to 4 million. The transparency of the copolymer by the Ziegler catalyst, with which the copolymer with better uniformity was produced, could be comparable with that by the metallocene catalyst.     

Synthesis and Characterization of Ethylene/Propylene Copolymers in the Whole Composition Range

Summary: The incorporation of comonomer molecules in the backbone of a homopolymer can influence the final properties of the material, decreasing its crystallinity and the melting and glass transition temperatures, and increasing its impact resistance and transparency. In the present work, ten ethylene/propylene copolymers have been synthesized using a supported metallocene catalytic system covering the whole composition range. Any desired composition was obtained by controlling the feed composition during the reaction. These synthesized copolymers have been characterized by different techniques in order to study the effect of the comonomer incorporation onto their final properties. When the comonomer content is low, the behaviour of the copolymer is similar to that of the corresponding homopolymer. Nevertheless, if the comonomer content increases, the copolymer becomes more amorphous (low crystallization temperature and soft XRD signals) and easily deformable, reaching a behaviour close to that corresponding to an elastomeric material. In order to corroborate these results the samples have been characterized by TREF and GPC-MALS. TREF analysis showed that copolymers containing less than 10% and more than 80% of ethylene are semicrystalline, with elution temperatures typical of this kind of polymers. Molecular weights are higher for homopolymers and they decrease as the comonomer concentration increases, whereas the polydispersity index keeps almost constant at the expected value for this kind of samples.     

Controlled Synthesis,Characterization, and Flow Properties of Ethylene–Diene Copolymers

The flow response of branched entangled resins is dominated by the branching topology of the constituent molecules, a property that is not directly accessible using experimental analytical tools for industrially relevant complex resins. In this paper, the controlled terpolymerization of ethylene, 1,9‐decadiene, and either hexene or octene in a continuous stirred tank reactor with a metallocene catalyst, is reported. The synthesized samples are characterized extensively with various analytical tools and their rheological properties are measured with small amplitude oscillatory shear and start‐up uniaxial extension experiments. A model is developed for the polymerization process with the mass balance during synthesis providing strong constraints on the rate constants. In silico ensembles of molecules, generated via Monte Carlo sampling, are used to reproduce the experimental results. The computer model allows us to infer the detailed branching structure of the molecules and to predict the optimum range of reactor conditions for this synthesis.     

Sorption and Diffusion of Propylene and Ethylene in Heterophasic Polypropylene Copolymers

Summary: Sorption experiments of ethylene and propylene in different polypropylene powder samples, both homopolymer and heterophasic copolymers with different rubber content, have been carried out in a high-pressure magnetic suspension balance at 10 bars pressure and 70 °C. The gross solubilities measured can be well correlated with the rubber content of the polymer samples. Solubility of ethylene and propylene in the rubber phase differ from solubility in the amorphous fraction of the homopolymer, especially the concentration ratio of propylene to ethylene differs significantly between rubber phase and amorphous fraction of the homopolymer. From the slope of monomer uptake, information on kinetics of mass-transfer can be gained. No significant differences were observed in terms of mass-transfer for ethylene and propylene. With increasing rubber content, effective diffusion coefficients increased slightly. By combined sorption studies with powder samples and compressed films, information about both effective diffusion coefficients and the effective length scale of diffusion could be gained. It could be shown, that the particle radius is not the characteristic length of diffusion in the studied powder samples. Mass transfer of nearly all samples could be described by a constant diffusion length of 120 to 130 µm, independently on particle size. This indicates that the effective scale of diffusion in polymer particles is in between microparticle and macroparticle scale used in classical particle modeling.     

Synthesis of Propylene Diblock Copolymers via Metallocene and Borane Chemistry

An isotactic chain end unsaturated polypropylene was prepared by the homogeneous metallocene catalyst Et(Ind)₂ZrCl₂ with MAO. Herein, the chain end unsaturated polypropylene proceeded the hydroboration reaction to prepare borane‐containing polypropylene. The borane‐containing polypropylene could be transformed to hydroxyl‐terminated polypropylene, PPOH. And then the polypropylene‐nylon 6 diblock copolymer, PP‐b‐NY6, was synthesized from telechelic PPOH by converting this prepolymer with toluene diisocyanate and using the resulting materials as macroactivators for anionic caprolactam polymerization. Meanwhile, this investigation used borane‐containing polypropylene and oxygen to produce free radicals at the chain end on the polypropylene. Experimental results indicate that the free radical is an effective initiator for the polymerization of methyl methacrylate to produce diblock PP‐b‐PMMA. The block copolymers are characterized by IR, NMR, and DSC analyses. The diblock copolymer is a good compatibilizer for polymer blends.     

Effect of Titanium on Fluxional Behavior of Unbridged Metallocene Catalysts

Summary: Thanks to the use of a ligand consisting of a saturated ring fused to the cyclopentadienyl moiety, which sensibly increases the stability of titanocenes, it was possible to investigate the oscillating behavior of titanium catalysts in propylene polymerization for the first time. The titanium‐based catalysts yield poly(propylene)s with new and interesting microstructures. Indeed, in spite of the significantly lower isotactic pentad content [mmmm], the average lengths of the isotactic blocks (N_iso) are similar or even higher than that obtained with the zirconium‐based homologues. Accordingly, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis shows melting peaks which are more evident than those obtained with the zirconium homologues. The study of the microstructure of the poly(propylene)s obtained with these catalysts allowed us to participate in the still open discussion on the oscillating mechanism of unbridged metallocenes.

The titanium‐based catalysts employed in this study.     

共聚单体乙烯对结晶性无规共聚聚丙烯平台模量的影响

采用齐格勒－纳塔催化剂制备了具有宽分子量分布和超高分子量的无规共聚聚丙烯(UHPPR)。利用平行板流变仪研究了UHPPR在180, 200 and 220℃的粘弹行为,发现UHPPR 180˚C和200˚C的损耗模量G″(ω)曲线,分别在频率为38.10rad/s 和 84.70rad/s处出现最大值峰。从而可以利用特定温度下的损耗模量曲线G″(ω),计算出具有宽分子量分布的结晶性超高分子量无规共聚聚丙烯(UHPPR)的平台模量(G_N⁰),所得UHPPR的平台模量(G_N⁰)在180 ℃和 200 ℃分别为4.51×10⁵ Pa和3.67×10⁵ Pa。这一结果表明,平台模量随乙烯含量的增加而提高,与分子量无关。     

Synthesis and Characterization of Long‐Chain‐Branched Polyolefins with Metallocene Catalysts: Copolymerization of Ethylene with Poly(ethylene‐co‐propylene) Macromonomer

Poly(ethylene‐co‐propylene) macromonomer (EPM) was synthesized in a high‐temperature continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) with [C₅Me₄(SiMe₂N^tBu)]TiMe₂ (CGC‐Ti) as the catalyst system. PE samples with EPM long chain branching (LCB) were produced by semi‐batch copolymerization of ethylene and EPM with CGC‐Ti. The LCB frequencies were up to 21.8 EPM side chains per PE backbone. The effects of temperature and ethylene pressure on the degree of EPM grafting and catalyst activity were examined.

Incorporation of EPM into a growing PE chain forming an LCB polymer.     

Glass Transition Temperature and Chain Flexibility of Ethylene‐Norbornene Copolymers from Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Summary: Model chains of ethylene‐norbornene copolymers were built up using the results of ¹³C NMR spectral analysis of copolymer samples synthesized with metallocene‐based catalysts. Our models statistically reproduce the microstructure, composition, and tacticity of the copolymer chains of experimental samples. They were used to test if MD simulations are suitable to investigate the relationships between microstructure and macroscopic properties. In particular, MD simulations were applied to calculate the glass transition temperature and to study the chain flexibility by the analysis of ACF of specific virtual bonds. Plots of specific volume versus temperature computed for models of four copolymer samples having different microstructures and norbornene contents yield T_g values in good agreement with experiments. Moreover, comparison of the ACFs provides some qualitative indications about the relationship between chain stereochemistry and T_g.

ACF functions of the virtual bonds with microstructures NENE (bottom) and ENNE (top).     

不同沉淀剂制备的Ag／TS－1催化丙烯直接气相氧化合成环氧丙烷

 在423K、常压固定床石英反应器中，以丙烯直接气相氧化为探针反应，考察了催化剂制备方法、沉淀剂的种类和浓度对制备的Ag／TS－1催化剂催化性能的影响，采用TEM，XRD和UV－Vis等表征手段对Ag／TS－1催化剂进行了分析．结果表明，沉积－沉淀法是最佳的催化剂制备方法，但浸渍法也可制得具有环氧丙烷选择性的催化剂．K2CO3是一种良好的沉淀剂．以K2CO3为沉淀剂，硅钛比为64的TS－1为载体制备的Ag／TS－1催化剂上的丙烯转化率为1．72％，环氧丙烷选择性为98．2％．少量单质银的存在有利于环氧丙烷的生成，除银粒子的分散状态外，银粒子与载体TS－1间的相互作用对提高催化剂的选择性具有决定性作用．     

丙烯气相环氧化催化剂及其机理研究

环氧丙烷是一种重要的化工中间体,广泛应用于化工、医药、食品、轻工等行业。环氧丙烷的传统工业生产方法--氯醇法和共氧化法存在着很多缺点,而最新开发的H₂O₂氧化法则存在催化剂寿命短、H₂O₂利用率低等问题没有根本解决。本文对环氧丙烷更为有前景的生产方法--以分子氧为氧源的气相选择性氧化丙烯的研究进展进行了总结,着重介绍了丙烯气相环氧化反应中的金、银、铜、铋-钼、钒、熔融盐催化剂以及其他以氧气为氧源的金属催化剂的研究进展,同时对丙烯气相氧化过程中涉及到的金催化剂的Ti活性位机理,铜、银催化剂上的金属环氧化中间物机理,银及其他金属的自由基机理作了相应的介绍。     

Ethylene–propylene copolymerization behavior of ansa‐dimethylsilylene(fluorenyl)(amido)dimethyltitanium complex: Application to ethylene–propylene–diene or ethylene–propylene–norbornene terpolymers

Copolymerization behavior of ethylene (E) and propylene (P) using ansa‐dimethylsilylene(fluorenyl)(amido)dimethyltitanium complex was investigated. P was more reactive than E regardless of the chain‐end monomer unit, which was very unusual in the coordination polymerization system. The terpolymerizations of E, P and norbornene (NB) or 5‐ethylidene‐2‐norbornene (5E2N) were also performed. The each content in the E/P/NB terpolymer was independently controlled by the initial concentration of NB and E/P feed ratio. Glass transition temperature (T_g) of the terpolymer was raised in proportion to the NB content and close to that of the corresponding NB/E random copolymer with the same NB content. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2015 , 53, 685–691     

Mass Spectrometric Characterization of Methylaluminoxane‐Activated Metallocene Complexes

Electrospray‐ionization mass spectrometric studies of poly(methylaluminoxane) (MAO) in the presence of [Cp₂ZrMe₂], [Cp₂ZrMe(Cl)], and [Cp₂ZrCl₂] in fluorobenzene (PhF) solution are reported. The results demonstrate that alkylation and ionization are separate events that occur at competitive rates in a polar solvent. Furthermore, there are significant differences in ion‐pair speciation that result from the use of metallocene dichloride complexes in comparison to alkylated precursors at otherwise identical Al/Zr ratios. Finally, the counter anions that form are dependent on the choice of precursor and Al/Zr ratio; halogenated aluminoxane anions [(MeAlO)_x(Me₃Al)_y?z(Me₂AlCl)_zMe]^? (z=1, 2, 3…?) are observed using metal chloride complexes and under some conditions may predominate over their non‐halogenated precursors [(MeAlO)_x(Me₃Al)_yMe]^?. Specifically, this halogenation process appears selective for the anions that form in comparison to the neutral components of MAO. Only at very high Al/Zr ratios is the same “native” anion distribution observed when using [Cp₂ZrCl₂] when compared with [Cp₂ZrMe₂]. Together, the results suggest that the need for a large excess of MAO when using metallocene dichloride complexes is a reflection of competitive alkylation vs. ionization, the persistence of unreactive, homodinuclear ion pairs in the case of [Cp₂ZrCl₂], as well as a change in ion pairing resulting from modification of the anions formed at lower Al/Zr ratios. Models for neutral precursors and anions are examined computationally.     

A Simplified Model for Prediction of Molecular Weight Distributions in Ethylene‐Hexene Copolymerization Using Ziegler‐Natta Catalysts

A simplified steady‐state model has been developed to predict molecular weight distributions and average compositions of ethylene‐hexene copolymers produced using heterogeneous Ziegler‐Natta catalysts in gas‐phase reactors. The model uses a simplified reaction scheme to limit the number of parameters that must be estimated. The number of parameters is further reduced by assuming that different types of active sites share common rate constants for some reactions. Estimates of kinetic parameters are obtained using deconvolution analysis of industrial copolymer samples produced using a variety of isothermal steady‐state operating conditions. The parameter estimates should prove useful as initial guesses for future parameter estimation in a non‐isothermal model.

     

Ethylene–Norbornene Copolymerization by Carbon Nanotube‐Supported Metallocene Catalysis: Generation of High‐Performance Polyolefinic Nanocomposites

Homogeneous surface coating of multi‐walled carbon nanotubes is achieved for the first time by in situ copolymerization of ethylene (E) and 2‐norbornene (N) as catalyzed directly from the nanotube surface previously treated by a highly active metallocene‐based complex, i.e., rac‐Et(Ind)₂ZrCl₂/MMAO‐3A. The copolymerization reaction allows for the destructuration of the native nanotube bundles, which upon further melt blending with an ethylene–vinyl acetate copolymer (27 wt.‐% vinyl acetate) matrix, leads to high‐performance polyolefinic nanocomposites. The microstructural analysis of the surface‐coating copolymer was carried out by ¹³C NMR spectroscopy and allowed determination of the actual N content incorporated along the chains. Depending on the experimental conditions used (e.g., E pressure, solvent, feed N concentration) the relative quantity of E–N copolymer can be tuned, as well as the N content in the formed copolymers and accordingly their glass transition temperature.

     

New Half‐Metallocene Catalysts Generating Polyethylene with Bimodal Molecular Weight Distribution and Syndiotactic Polystyrene

A new type of half‐metallocene catalyst for the polymerization of ethylene and styrene, Cp*M((O)₃O₉Si₇(c‐C₅H₉)₇) (M = Ti ( 1) ; Zr ( 2 )), is prepared by the reaction of (HO)₃O₉Si₇(c‐C₅H₉)₇ with Cp*MCl₃ in the presence of triethylamine. Complex 1 is stable to heat and air, but its heavier congener 2 is slightly air‐sensitive. The catalytic systems 1 /MMAO and 2 /MMAO, in which MMAO is modified methylaluminoxane, show good activities in ethylene polymerization, with that of 2 /MMAO greater than that of 1 /MMAO. Polyethylenes with bimodal molecular weight distributions were obtained. In addition, the catalytic system 1 /MMAO shows fairly good activities for the syndiospecific polymerization of styrene.     

Synthesis of Ultrahigh‐Molecular‐Weight Ethylene‐1‐Hexene Copolymers with High Hexene Content via Living Polymerization with Fluorinated Bis(phenoxy–imine) Titanium(IV)

The fluorinated FI–Ti catalyst bis[N‐(3‐propylsalicylidene)‐pentafluoroanilinato] titanium(IV) dichloride (PFI) combined with dried methylaluminoxane (dMAO) is investigated for ethylene/1‐hexene copolymerization at 50 °C under atmospheric pressure. The reaction shows good livingness and has a high activity at high [H]/[E] molar ratios up to 14. Ultrahigh molecular weight (>1.4 × 10⁶ g mol⁻¹) copolymers with high 1‐hexene content (>25 mol%) are prepared. Kinetic parameters of the copolymerization with PFI are determined. The first‐order Markov statistics applies and the product of the reactivity ratios r₁r₂ is close to 1, giving random unit distributions.

     

Exploring Reaction Kinetics of a Multi‐Site Ziegler‐Natta Catalyst Using Deconvolution of Molecular Weight Distributions for Ethylene‐Hexene Copolymers

Industrial ethylene‐hexene copolymer samples produced using a supported Ti‐based Ziegler‐Natta catalyst were deconvoluted into five Flory molecular weight distributions (MWDs). Relationships between reactor operating conditions and deconvolution parameters confirmed that temperature and hydrogen and hexene concentrations influenced the MWD. The two sites that produced low‐molecular‐weight polymer responded similarly to changes in reactor operating conditions, as did the three sites that produce high‐molecular‐weight polymer. Increasing hexene concentration resulted in relatively more polymer being produced at the two low‐molecular‐weight sites and less at the high‐molecular‐weight sites. The information obtained will be useful for making simplifying assumptions during kinetic model development.

     

合成高分子量无规聚丙烯—在烷烃溶剂中聚合及性能初步表征

丙烯聚合;茂金属催化剂;立体结构;合成高分子量无规聚丙烯—在烷烃溶剂中聚合及性能初步表征