Ziegler-Natta and metallocene polymerisation

As a result of the work of Ziegler in Germany, Natta in Italy and Pease and Roedel in the United States, the process of co-ordination polymerisation, a process related to ionic polymerisation, became of significance in the late 1950s. This process is today used in the commercial manufacture of polypropylene and polyethylene and has also been used in the laboratory for the manufacture of many novel polymers. In principle the catalyst system used governs the way in which a monomer and a growing chain approach each other and because of this it is possible to produce stereoregular polymers. 

The catalysts used are themselves complexes produced by interaction of alkyls of metals in Groups I-III of the Periodic Table with halides and other derivatives of Groups IV-VIII metals. Although soluble co-ordination catalysts are known, those used for the manufacture of stereoregular polymers are usually solid or adsorbed on solid particles. 

A number of olefins may be polymerised using certain metal oxides supported on the surface of an inert solid particle. The mechanism of these polymerisation reactions is little understood but is believed to be ionic in nature. 

Following the considerable commercial success of Ziegler-Natta polymerisation systems which made possible high density polyethylene, polypropylene, ethylene-propylene rubbers and a number of speciality materials, a considerable 

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In the late 1980s and in the 1990s, homogeneous metallocene-based Ziegler Natta and related aluminium-free catalysts as well as other non-metallocene-based homogeneous single-site catalysts, which are active in the syndiospecific polymerisation of styrene, were found also to promote the polymerisation of conjugated dienes [16,38 13],... 

Attempts to produce coplymers of ethylene and styrene by free radical and by conventional Ziegler-Natta catalysts systems have, over the years, not proved successful. However, in 1998 Dow announced novel polymers using a metallocene process with the intention of commercial polymerisation using a 23 000t.p.a. capacity plant starting in 1999. 

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. ... 

Cyclopentadienyl compounds (i.e. metallocenes) (Fig. 5), which have at least one direct metal-carbon bond to the C5H5 ligand, were first synthesised in the 1950s [79,80]. Since then, reactions of cyclopentadienyl reagents have been applied for almost every element [123]. The main application of metallocenes is their use as catalysts in the polymerisation of olefins by Ziegler-Natta polymerisation processes. As many metallocene compounds are volatile and thermally stable, they are also suitable for use as precursors in MOCVD [124-127]. Although cyclopentadienyl compounds have attracted considerable interest as precursors in CVD depositions they are sometimes too reactive [128]. However, high reactivity and thermal stability make cy-... 

Homogeneous alkylaluminium (alkylaluminoxane)-free olefin polymerisation catalysts are commonly referred to as catalysts containing group 4 metallocene cationic species. These catalysts resemble the structure and properties of the respective metallocene-based Ziegler-Natta catalysts but, by definition, are not included among the latter catalysts. The development of alkylaluminium-free metallocene-based olefin polymerisation catalysts is connected with discoveries... 

In the case of olefin polymerisation with homogeneous Ziegler-Natta catalysts, especially with single-site (metallocene) catalysts, the kinetic analysis may become simpler than in the case of polymerisation with heterogeneous catalysts, and in some instances can serve as a very useful tool for uncovering the true polymerisation mechanism [30,243],... 

The Mw/Mn ratio is usually equal to 5-10 for polyethylene [49,64,66,67, 123,244-247], A much lower polydispersity is displayed by polymers obtained in polymerisation with homogeneous metallocene catalysts the Mw/Mn ratio usually does not significantly exceed a value of 2 [22,95,101,112,138,140], By polymerising propylene with soluble vanadium-based Ziegler-Natta catalysts at low temperature, a very narrow molecular weight distribution of the polypropylene has been found (the Mw/Mn ratio usually reaches values of 1.15-1.25) and a linear increase in its Mn with time has been observed, indicating a noticeable living character of the polymerisation [75,76,241],... 

The mechanism that is commonly considered to operate in the polymerisation of ethylene and a-olefins in the presence of group 4 metallocene-based catalysts is that devised by Cossee [268, 276, 277] for propylene polymerisation with heterogeneous Ziegler-Natta catalysts, though modifications invoking effects such as a-agostic hydrogen interactions with the metal centre have been proposed [343,344]. 

Similarly to the case of heterogeneous Ziegler Natta olefin polymerisation catalysts, the coordination of the olefin molecule at the cationic metallocene species, due to n bond formation (Figure 2.1), leads to lowering of the energy of the resultant n complex, e.g. the [Cp 2Mt(R)-olefin]1 [Alx(R)x OxX2] complex, which results in activation of the catalyst Mt-C bond and olefin C=C bond for the insertion reaction [136]. 

At the end of considerations of the role of alkylaluminoxanes as activators for metallocenes as Ziegler-Natta olefin polymerisation catalysts, it should be noted that the analogy between methylaluminoxane and simple acidic moieties does not appear to hold. For example, highly Lewis acidic perfluorinated boranes, such as Bf CgFs, show enhanced activity as activators when compared with [Al(Me)0]x, but the stability of the resulting zirconocene-based catalyst is drastically lower than that of the catalyst formed with [Al(Me)0]x [98]. 

Figure 3.59 Life cycles of catalysts for olefin coordination polymerisation (a) early-generation Ziegler-Natta catalysts for ethylene and propylene polymerisation (b) Phillips catalysts for ethylene polymerisation (c) fourth-generation Ziegler-Natta catalysts for ethylene polymerisation (d) fourth-generation Ziegler-Natta catalysts for propylene polymerisation (e) metallocene-based catalysts for olefin polymerisation leading to polymers of various stereoregularity...

In contrast to heterogeneous Ziegler-Natta catalysts, homogeneous catalysts based on biscyclopentadienyl derivatives of group 4 transition metals, which contain cationic metallocene species of formally d° 14-electronic structure, hardly promote the polymerisation of conjugated dienes, since the diene can act as a donor of four electrons rather than of two electrons as in monoolefin polymerisation (let us recall that the polymerisation of conjugated dienes is catalysed by half-sandwich metallocene-based catalysts). However, it has been reported [162] that statistical copolymers of ethylene and butadiene were obtained with the Cp2ZrCl2— [Al(Me)0]x catalyst. 

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