| Abstract: | Copolymerization of propylene and 1-butene with highly stereospecific three-component coordination catalysts produced multiblock crystalline copolymers having stereo-regular sequences of both propylene and 1-butene. Copolymers containing from 3 to about 80% 1-butene had two DTA melting points which were attributable to polypropylene and poly-1-butene crystallinity. Those containing from 18 to about 70% 1-butene had x-ray diffraction patterns showing peaks characteristic of polypropylene and form I poly-1-butene, but form II poly-1-butene crystallinity was never observed. The multiblock copolymer structure observed is also supported by the fact that the product of the reactivity ratios is greater than unity. The composition distributions of low-conversion and continuously prepared copolymers were similar and relatively broad. For example, copolymers containing an average of 12% 1-butene had species containing from 5–30% 1-butene. High-conversion copolymers had an even broader composition distribution due to the gradual increase of the 1-butene concentration in the comonomer mixture as the copolymerization proceeded. The absence of homopolymers was demonstrated by fractionation. The ability to detect homopolymers was proved by the fact that a mixture of stereoregular polypropylene and poly-1-butene were readily separated. Increasing the amount of 1-butene tended to decrease those properties dependent upon crystallinity such as hardness, tensile strength, stiffness, density, and melting point, but tended to improve significantly the impact strength, low temperature properties, and clarity of molded objects. These duocrystalline copolymers retained a much higher level of properties than that observed for random copolymers prepared with less stereospecific coordination catalysts. |
