The Third Compound Promoted Copolymerization of Ethylene with 4-Penten-1-ol by Using Metallocene Catalyst

Olefin coordination copolymerization with polar monomers is an important topic both in academia and industry. During copolymerization, polar monomers will seriously reduce the polymerization activity and the molecular weight of the copolymer, making it difficult to balance the two and the polar monomer incorporation at the same time. In this study, a metallocene catalyst, Ph₂C(Cp)(Flu)ZrCl₂, is used for the copolymerization of ethylene with 4-penten-1-ol. The incorporation of 4-penten-1-ol can be effectively increased by the introduction of the steric phenol as the third component (TC). Depending on the cocatalyst, the activity or molecular weight can be improved. It is believed that the promotion effect may work by the interaction of the steric phenol with the catalyst or cocatalyst. It is also suggested that in this system, polymerization is terminated by deactivation-chain transfer mechanism rather than β-X elimination due to back-biting.