Abstract
This paper describes the first example of consecutive chain transfer reaction, first to p-methylstyrene (or styrene) and then to hydrogen, during metallocene-catalyzed propylene polymerization by rac-Me2Si[2-Me-4-Ph(Ind)]2ZrCl2/MAO complex. The PP molecular weight is inversely proportional to the molar ratio of [p-methylstyrene]/[propylene] and [styrene]/[propylene] with the chain transfer constants of ktr/kp = 1/6.36 and 1/7.5, respectively. Although hydrogen does not influence the polymer molecular weight, it greatly affects the catalyst activity. Each PP chain formed contains a terminal p-methylstyrene (or styrene) unit. The terminal p-MS unit can be metalated to form a stable polymeric anion for living anionic polymerization to prepare new PP diblock copolymers, such as PP-b-PS, which are very difficult to prepare by other methods. The overall process resembles a transformation reaction from metallocene to living anionic polymerization.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 4871-4876 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Journal of the American Chemical Society |
Volume | 123 |
Issue number | 21 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 9 2001 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Catalysis
- Chemistry(all)
- Biochemistry
- Colloid and Surface Chemistry