Uranium Catalysts for the Synthesis of Highly Cis-Tactic Polydienes

Abstract

Abstract Among the several transition metals used for the synthesis of polymers by Ziegler-Natta catalysts very little attention has been devoted to uranium, notwithstanding the undoubted interest that this metal offers from both the scientific and economical point of view. In fact, uranium gives the organo-metallic and the polymer chemist wide possibilities of synthesis, owing to its manifold coordination possibilities. From the economical point of view, uranium is already a cheap material, as a byproduct of nuclear fuel cycles, and one can easily foresee that, as happened in the past for coal and crude oil, uranium will have a future as a raw material in addition to its use as an energy source. The large potential supply of depleted uranium from the existing gaseous diffusion plants in the world and a forecast of this supply in western Europe from 1975 to 1985 is reported in Table I. This forecast is likely to be underestimated as it was made before the present worldwide energy crisis.