In
this work, we have addressed the question of the location of
electron donors (we chose ethylbenzoate, EB, for practical reasons)
on the surface of MgCl2-supported Ziegler–Natta
catalysts by synergistically coupling (a) an in situ investigation
of the EB adsorption process by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy,
(b) an evaluation of the MgCl2 surfaces available for the
adsorption of CO as a molecular probe at each step of the precatalyst
synthesis and (c) an accurate quantum mechanical density functional
theory (DFT-D) study of a few TiCl4/EB complexes. Our experimental
data indicate that homogeneous-like TiCl4/EB complexes
are formed, loosely bonded to the MgCl2 surfaces, as a
consequence of a rather high mobility of the adsorbed EB and TiCl4. Our DFT-D computational results demonstrate that monomeric
TiCl4(EB) and TiCl4(EB)2 complexes
might indeed exist on different catalytically relevant MgCl2 surfaces (although steric repulsion does not allow reaching a full
surface coverage), whose computed infrared spectra are highly compatible
with the experimental ones. The whole set of data converge to a final
scenario whereby the internal donor has the function to induce a certain
mobility for TiCl4 simultaneously acting as a “surfactant”,
in certain cases providing a particularly exposed TiCl4 species readily available for further reaction with the aluminum
alkyl activator. The relevant role of the MgCl2 support
in assisting the self-organization of the catalyst components clearly
emerges.