MgCl2 crystals, defects

MgCl2-Supported Catalysts. Examination of polymerizations with TiCl catalysts has estabUshed that only a small percentage of titanium located on lateral faces, edges, and along crystal defects is active (52) (see Titanium and titanium alloys). This led to the recognition that much of the catalyst mass acted only as a support, promoting considerable activity aimed at finding a support for active titanium that would not be detrimental to polymer properties. 

It is in the stereospecific polymerization of propylene that metallocene complexes display their astonishing versatility. Commercial Ziegler-Natta catalysts for isotactic polypropylene - based on combinations of TiCU, MgCl2, Lewis bases and aluminum alkyls - depend on a metal-centered chirality which exists at specific edge and defect sites on the crystal lattice to direct the incoming monomer in a particular orientation. These catalysts produce small amounts of undesirable atactic material due to the presence of achiral active sites. 

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