No abstract

A series of mononuclear (M 1 and M 2 ) and dinuclear (C 1 -C 6 ) Ni α-diimine catalysts activated by modified methylaluminoxane were used in polymerization of ethylene. Catalyst C 2 bearing the optimum bulkiness showed the highest activity (1.6 × 10 6 g PE (mol Ni) −1 h −1 ) and the lowest short-chain branching (32.5/1000 C) in comparison to the dinuclear and mononuclear analogues.Although the mononuclear catalysts M 1 and M 2 polymerized ethylene to a branched amorphous polymer, the dinuclear catalysts led to different branched semicrystalline polyethylenes. Homogeneity and heterogeneity in the microstructure of the polyethylene samples was observed. Different trends for each catalyst were assigned to syn and anti stereoisomers. In addition, thermal behavior of the samples in the successive self-nucleation and annealing technique exhibited different orders and intensities from methylene sequences and lamellae thickness in respect of each stereoisomer behavior. Higher selectivity of hexyl branches obtained by catalyst C 2 showed a cooperative effect between the centers. The results also revealed that for catalysts C 5 and C 6 , selectivity of methyl branches led to very high endotherms and crystalline sequences with melting temperatures higher than that of 100% crystalline polyethylene indicating ethylene/propylene copolymer analogues. For catalysts C 3 and C 4 , more vinyl end groups were a result of the long distance between the Ni centers. Kinetic profiles of polymerization along with a computational study of the precatalysts and catalysts demonstrated that there is a direct relation between rate constant, energy interval of catalyst and precatalyst, and interaction energy of Et···methyl cationic active center (Et···MCC or π-Comp.). Based on this, narrow energy interval (activation energy) of precatalyst and catalyst leads to fast and higher activation rate (catalyst M 2 ), and strong interaction of ethylene and catalyst leads to high monomer uptake and productivity (catalyst C 2 ). Moreover, theoretical parameters including electron affinity, Mulliken charge on Ni, chemical potential and hardness, and global electrophilicity showed optimum values for C 2 .

Poly(1-hexene)s with a wide range of Mw and MWD using mono- and dinuclear rigid/flexible bridged Ni catalysts; structure–property relation.

Understanding from the underlying mechanism of chain shuttling polymerization (CSP) is limited due to scarceness of successful reports and incompetence of traditional characterization techniques to distinguish blocky structures. Here, a simple synthesis approach for production of an isotactic poly­(1-hexene)/branched polyethylene multiblock copolymer from a 1-hexene monomer is presented. Resulting copolymers can be easily characterized because of their solubility in most organic solvents. This novel blocky architecture is synthesized using ansa-ethylenebis­(1-η5-indenyl)zirconium dichloride and α-diimine nickel­(II) bromide catalysts. While the former participates in 1,2-enchainment of monomers and produces amorphous segments, the latter forms methylene sequences through chain walking reaction. A quasi-living polymerization is established by reversible transfer of growing chains between catalyst components, as manifested by narrowing molecular weight distribution. 13C NMR analysis confirms that the blocky structure can be tuned by adjusting polymerization conditions. Decrease of the crystallizable methylene sequence in the presence of CSA leads to a significant transparency of the product.