Metallocene-based polyethylene processes

Narrow molecular weight distribution, which is characteristic of metallocene-based polyethylene (Fig. 7), causes processing difficulty in certain applications due to increased melt pressure, reduced melt strength, and melt fracture [14,15]. This problem can be overcome by blending the metallocene polymer with other prod-... 

Mention has already been made in this chapter of metallocene-catalysed polyethylene (see also Chapter 2). Such metallocene catalysts are transition metal compounds, usually zirconium or titanium. Incorporated into a cyclopentadiene-based structure. During the late 1990s several systems were developed where the new catalysts could be employed in existing polymerisation processes for producing LLDPE-type polymers. These include high pressure autoclave and... 

With the exception of LDPE, polyolefins like other polyethylenes and polypropylene, which represent the largest amount of vinyl-type polymers produced in the world, are neither synthesized by radical nor by classical ionic polymerisation processes. Different types of polymerisation catalysts are in use for these purposes. The Cr-based Phillips catalyst, Ziegler-Natta type catalysts, metallocene or other more recently discovered catalysts, including late transition metal catalysts, are all characterized by their propagation step where the olefin monomer inserts into a carbon-transition metal link. ... 

Exxpol [Exxon polymerization] A gas-phase process for making polyethylene from ethylene. The process uses single-site catalysis (SSC), based on a zirconium metallocene catalyst. Developed by Exxon Chemical Company in 1990 with plans to be commercialized in 1994. 

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