The
famous Phillips CrO
x
/SiO2 catalyst
is characterized by its multisite nature and the resulting
broad molecular weight distribution (MWD) of its polyethylene (PE)
products. However, the multiplicity of active sites and their catalytic
behavior relating to the broad MWD have scarcely been studied. Given
the high and comparable efficiency of calcination and F modification
in regulating the active site multiplicity of this catalyst, eight
polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS)-based cluster models comprising
four-, six-, and eight-membered chromasiloxane rings (4CR, 6CR, and 8CR) were partially or fully
capped by OH or F and employed for density functional theory (DFT)
calculations related to C2H4 polymerization.
For the OH-capped models, the results emphasized the dominant size
effect of the chromasiloxane ring (CR), where the model with a smaller
CR was less abundant but could produce higher-molecular-weight (MW)
PE with a higher activity. The predicted MW indicated the very broad
MWD of the PE products, consistent with that of the products generated
from low-temperature calcinated CrO
x
/SiO2. However, depending on the size of the CR, these models responded
unequally to F modification. Specifically, the more abundant sites
with 8CR were promoted more obviously, and the MW of
their PE products was increased. This makes the polymerization rate
higher and the MWD of the PE narrower, which agrees with those of
the PE products synthesized by F-modified CrO
x
/SiO2 calcined at a low temperature. Furthermore, the
origin of the effects of CR size and F modification was properly illustrated
in terms of both steric and electronic variations.
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