Dependence of comonomer effect and hydrogen effect on internal donor in ethylene/1-hexene copolymerizations with MgCl2-supported catalysts

Abstract

AbstractEthylene homopolymerization and copolymerizations with 1-hexene by three types of MgCl2-supported catalysts were compared. Cat-1 contains no internal electron donor (ID), Cat-2 contains phthalic anhydride (PA) as ID, and Cat- 3 contains anisole as ID. The influences of two kinds of ID on comonomer effect, the role of hydrogen, polymerization kinetics in ethylene/1-hexene copolymerization were investigated. The addition of ID improves the catalysts activities in ethylene polymerization. In comparison with ethylene homopolymerization, these ethylene/1-hexene copolymerization systems all showed strong comonomer effects. However, internal donor, especially anisole, weakens the extent of comonomer activity enhancement. When the concentration of 1-hexene is 0.6 mol/L, catalysts activities increase remarkably with adding a small amount of hydrogen. But, the addition of ID reduces the sensitivity of catalyst activity to hydrogen. The introduction of anisole increases the homo-polymerization rate rapidly at the initial stage, but makes it decay earlier. In ethylene/1-hexene copolymerization with hydrogen, the addition of phthalic anhydride as ID can stabilize the polymerization rate, but anisole accelerates the decaying trends. The results are discussed based on a kinetic mechanistic model of the ID effect on ethylene copolymerization.