Syntheses of poly(siloxane)‐supported zirconocene catalysts and application to olefin polymerizations

Abstract

Poly(siloxane)s with bisindenyl, bisfluorenyl, bis(1,2,3,4-tetramethylcyclopentadienyl), bis(2,4,7-trimethylindenyl) and monoindenylmethyl side groups were synthesized by condensation of the corresponding dichlorosilanes and water. For reference, diphenylsilanediol or hydroquinone was also employed in place of water. A series of poly(siloxane)-supported zirconocene catalysts were then prepared from these precursors and applied to ethene and propene polymerizations as well as to the copolymerization of ethene with 1-octene in the presence of methylalumoxane. The polymerization activity of the new supported metallocenes depends drastically upon the substituents in the siloxane backbone. The zirconocene catalysts supported on poly(bisindenylsiloxane) and poly(bisfluorenylsiloxane) give the highest activities for ethene and propene polymerizations, respectively. The weight-average molecular weights of the polymers are also markedly dependent upon the substituents. On the other hand, the molecular mass distributions (MMD) are generally not so sharp, suggesting that the active species formed in these supported catalysts are not uniform. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 36: 421–428, 1998