Synthesis of highly isotactic poly 1-hexene using Fe-doped Mg(OEt)2/TiCl4/ED Ziegler–Natta catalytic system

Abstract

In this article, polymerization of 1-hexene with FeCl3-doped Mg(OET)2/TiCl4/electron donor (ED) catalytic system is presented. For this purpose, first a number of TiCl4 catalysts supported on Mg(OEt)2 and Fe-doped Mg(OEt)2 supports were prepared with ethylbenzoate or dibutylphthalate as the internal EDs. After successive catalysts synthesis, they were employed in 1-hexene polymerization using cyclohexyl methyl dimethoxysilane as external ED as well as without it. The catalysts activity and molecular weight distribution (MWD) of poly 1-hexenes (PHs) were influenced strongly by both FeCl3 doping and donor presence so that a remarkable increase in the catalyst activity was seen in doped catalysts. Deconvolution of MWD curves revealed that increase in the type of active centers by introducing FeCl3 into the support should be responsible for the broadening of MWD of PHs. 13CNMR analysis indicated that while isotacticity does not change considerably by Fe doping, EDs increase its amount as high as 8–21%. Second, the stereoselective behavior of active Ti species in doped and undoped catalysts was fully explored by molecular modeling using density functional theory (DFT) method. Finally, with the aid of rheological measurements, the processability of polymers were evaluated and then the gel permeation chromatography (GPC) results were approved through the values obtained from model fitting as well as changes in moduli crossover modulus.