New evidence of the presence of internal electron donors in active sites of heterogeneous Ziegler-Natta catalysts

Poly(propylene) samples produced by heterogeneous Ziegler-Natta catalysts containing different internal electron donors were fractionated by using temperature rising elution fractionation; some key fractions were analyzed with ¹³C NMR. It was found that internal electron donors with different structures can convert aspecific active sites into different isospectrific ones. The employment of bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate as internal electron donor leads to chemically inverted structures in the atactic fraction. This suggests that an internal electron donor may also exist in the environment of aspecific active sites.