Copolymerization of vinylcyclohexane with ethene and propene using zirconocene catalysts |
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Authors: | Erkki Aitola Arto Puranen Harri Setl Sami Lipponen Markku Leskel Timo Repo |
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Institution: | Erkki Aitola,Arto Puranen,Harri Setälä,Sami Lipponen,Markku Leskelä,Timo Repo |
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Abstract: | Vinylcyclohexane (VCH) was copolymerized with ethene and propene using methylaluminoxane‐activated metallocene catalysts. The catalyst precursor for the ethene copolymerization was rac‐ethylenebis(indenyl)ZrCl2 ( 1 ). Propene copolymerizations were further studied with Cs‐symmetric isopropylidene(cyclopentadienyl)(fluorenyl)ZrCl2 ( 2 ), C1‐symmetric ethylene(1‐indenyl‐2‐phenyl‐2‐fluorenyl)ZrCl2 ( 3 ), and “meso”‐dimethylsilyl3‐benzylindenyl)(2‐methylbenze]indenyl)]ZrCl2 ( 4 ). Catalyst 1 produced a random ethene–VCH copolymer with very high activity and moderate VCH incorporation. The highest comonomer content in the copolymer was 3.5 mol %. Catalysts 1 and 4 produced poly(propene‐co‐vinylcyclohexane) with moderate to good activities up to 4900 and 15,400 kg of polymer/(mol of catalyst × h) for 1 and 4 , respectively] under similar reaction conditions but with fairly low comonomer contents (up to 1.0 and 2.0% for 1 and 4 , respectively). Catalysts 2 and 3 , both bearing a fluorenyl moiety, gave propene–VCH copolymers with only negligible amounts of the comonomer. The homopolymerization of VCH was performed with 1 as a reference, and low‐molar‐mass isotactic polyvinylcyclohexane with a low activity was obtained. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 6569–6574, 2006 |
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Keywords: | copolymerization ethene isotactic olefins metallocene catalysts polymerization polyolefins propene vinylcyclohexane zirconocene |
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