Abstract
Since its discovery as a crucial cocatalyst in metallocene and post-metallocene olefin polymerizations methylaluminoxane (MAO) has retained commercial and academic status. In spite of continued interest the MAO structure remains ambiguously defined. Because of limited alkane solubility toluene emerged as the MAO solvent of necessity. With time these toluene solutions can develop a gel fraction. The MAO structures proposed include linear, ring, ladder, and cyclic with the latter involving fused four and six membered rings along with cage and drumlike architectures. The linear and ring structures have aluminum and oxygen valences of three and two respectively while the other structures require Al/O co-ordination numbers of four and three. MAO structural information has been gathered from colligative property measurements, various NMR formats and quantum chemical calculations. We have used small-angle neutron scattering (SANS)fortified with static and dynamic light scattering (SLS/DLS)as the primary analysis...
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