METALLOCENE POLYETHYLENES WITH BROAD OR BIMODAL MOLECULAR WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION

Seven new binuclear titanocenes with different linking bridges, unsubstituted or substituted on the Cp rings, were synthesized and tested for their effect on ethylene polymerization in the presence of MAO. The polyethylenes thus obtained had broad MWD or even bimodal GPC curves, as compared with that from two reference mononuclear titanocenes. This is explained by the difference in degree of steric hindrance around the active center sites imposed by the bulky substituted ligands assuming different configurations in the rotation of the catalyst molecules. Lower polymerization temperatures alleviate the effect of these configuration differences, as reflected in change in MW and (M) over bar(w)/(M) over bar(n). This effect is not caused by decomposition or disproportionation of the binuclear titanocenes as evidenced by the stability of the catalyst.

Kinetics of Nonisothermal and Isothermal Crystallization of Metallocene Polyethylene

The kinetics of nonisothermal and isothermal crystallization of metallocene catalyzed and conventional polyethylenes has been studied by differential scanning calorimetry. Using Avrami equation, Ozawa theory and Mo Zhishen method, the experimental data have been analyzed. It is shown that metallocene polyethylene possesses a higher rate of crystallization due to a higher stereoregularity of its molecular chains. Moreover, they have different nonisothermal crystallization mechanisms and identical isothermal crystallization mechanisms.

Tandem Catalysis of One Metallocene Catalyst Combined with Two Different Cocatalysts for Preparing Branched Polyethylene

Tandem catalytic systems, consisting of ethylene bis（indenyl） zirconium dichloride with two different cocatalysts, alkylaluminum（diethylaluminium chloride or trialkylaluminum） and methylaluminoxane, were employed in preparing branched polyethylene from ethylene as sole monomer. The catalytic system rac-Et（Ind）2Zr Cl2/Al Et2Cl/MAO exhibited high incorporation（29.0/1000C）. The oligomerization and copolymerization reaction conditions in the tandem catalytic system, as well as the different cocatalysts, have effects on the catalytic activity and the properties of the obtained polymer, such as melting temperature, crystallinity, molecular weight and molecular weight distribution. Moreover, the oligomerization reaction condition is the main factor in altering the properties and structures of polyethylene.

Detection of long-chain branches in polyethylene via rheological measurements

The detection of long-chain branches（LCB） in polyethylene is of considerable importance as the processing properties of polyethylene are strongly affected by even a small amount of LCB. While the conventional characterization techniques such as GPC-MALS and13 C NMR fail or take very long time to detect low content of LCB, we turn to the rheological method, which is more sensitive to LCB. In our study, we performed oscillatory shear test, creep test and stress relaxation test on two series of metallocene linear low density polyethylene（LLDPE）, revealing that the resins with LCB show higher zero-shear-rate viscosity, retarded relaxation and higher flow activation energy than those without or with less LCB. The resins with LCB showed shear thinning at very low shear rate and their zero-shear-rate viscosities were obtained via creep test. The content of LCB was quantitatively estimated from the flow activation energy. In addition, the modulus-time curves during stress relaxation of melt of the different resins obeyed the power law. The exponent of the resins with more LCB was 0.7, different from that of the resins with less LCB, around 1.7.