Abstract
Homo- and copolymers of propylene and 1-decene were synthesized by controlled chain-walking (co)polymerization using phenyl substituted α-diimine nickel complexes activated with modified methylaluminoxane (MMAO). This catalytic system was found to polymerize propylene in a living fashion to furnish high molecular weight ethylene-propylene (EP) copolymers. The copolymerizations proceeded to give high molecular weight P/1-decene copolymers with narrow molecular weight distribution (Mw/Mn ≈ 1.2), which indicated a living nature of copolymerization at room temperature. The random copolymerization results indicated the possibility of precise branched structure control, depending on the polymerization temperature and time.
Highlights
The interest in highly branched polyolefins such as dendrimer and hyper branched polymers has increased obviously in recent years owing to these unique physical properties, chemical properties, and their potential applications as adhesives, lubricants, and paints [7]
Compared with a commercial linear polyethylene (LPE), these branched polyolefin-based materials with a chain topology possess unique physical properties stemming from their architectures [2,7], and provide the potential to increase polymeric melt fracture resistance, elasticity, paintability, and compatibility with other materials
Propylene polymerization: Propylene (1.2 bar) was introduced to the reactor kept at polymerization temperature after the toluene was saturated with propylene; modified methylaluminoxane (MMAO) was added and the solution was stirred for 10 min
Summary
Cationic late-transition metal catalyzed homo- and copolymerization of alkenes such as ethylene and propylene have received substantial attention in polymer science and materials chemistry [1,2,3,4,5].polypropylene (PP) is a very popular plastic material used for many applications, namely, in electrical devices, automotive parts, food packaging, household equipment, and many others [6].At present, due to the epidemic situation of novel coronavirus pneumonia in the world, epidemic prevention materials in many countries are in short supply, especially for medical grade polypropylene raw materials for the production of medical masks.In the field of polyolefin research [7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20], many studies have reported on the homopolymerization of ethylene [21,22,23,24], different higher 1-alkene [25,26,27,28,29,30,31], and linear internal alkenes [32,33,34] usingBrookhart-type α-diimine nickel and palladium catalysts [35,36,37,38,39,40,41] because of the chain-walking process [42,43,44,45]. Cationic late-transition metal catalyzed homo- and copolymerization of alkenes such as ethylene and propylene have received substantial attention in polymer science and materials chemistry [1,2,3,4,5]. The interest in highly branched polyolefins such as dendrimer and hyper branched polymers has increased obviously in recent years owing to these unique physical properties, chemical properties, and their potential applications as adhesives, lubricants, and paints [7]. Compared with a commercial linear polyethylene (LPE), these branched polyolefin-based materials with a chain topology possess unique physical properties stemming from their architectures [2,7], and provide the potential to increase polymeric melt fracture resistance, elasticity, paintability, and compatibility with other materials.
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