Co- and terpolymerization of ethylene, propylene, and higher α-olefins with high propylene contents using metallocene catalysts

✍ Scribed by M. A. Villar; M. L. Ferreira

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 204 KB
• Volume: 39
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0887-624X
• DOI: 10.1002/1099-0518(20010401)39:7<1136::aid-pola1090>3.0.co;2-5

✦ Synopsis

The copolymerization of propylene/ethylene and terpolymerization of propylene/ethylene/␣-olefins using long-chain ␣-olefins such as 1-octene and 1-decene have been carried out using EtInd 2 ZrCl 2 //methylaluminoxane. High concentrations of propylene and low concentrations of ␣-olefins (near 2 mol % of the total olefin concentration in the liquid phase) were used. The effect of the ethylene concentration in copolymerizations of propylene/␣-olefins was studied at medium ethylene contents (12 and 40 mol % in the gas phase). The polymers were molecularly characterized by gel permeation chromatography-multiangle laser light scattering, wide-angle X-ray scattering, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and DSC analyses. The shorter ␣-olefin studied (1octene) produced the highest improvement of activity in terpolymerization at 12 mol % ethylene in the gas phase. About 2 mol % of 1-octene in the liquid phase increases the activity and decreases the molecular weight of terpolymers with respect to corresponding copolymers, whereas the mp is increased by almost 30 °C. The "termonomer effect" is less evident when higher amounts of ethylene are used.