A study of the effect of styrene concentration on the molecular weight of polypropylene produced using metallocene catalysts |
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Authors: | Brian C Peoples Francisco J Rodríguez Griselda B Galland Franco M Rabagliati Raul Quijada |
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Affiliation: | 1. Departamento de Ingeniería Química y Biotecnología, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas and Centro para la Investigación Avanzada de Materiales (CIMAT), Universidad de Chile, Casilla 2777, Santiago, Chile;2. Grupo Polímeros, Departamento Ciencias del Ambiente, Facultad de Química y Biología, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Casilla 40, Correo 33, Santiago, Chile;3. Instituto de Química, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Gon?alves 9500, Porto Alegre 91570‐970, Brazil |
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Abstract: | It has been observed in the production of polypropylene nanocomposites containing silicate materials that the molecular weight of the polymer used can have a significant effect on the final quality of the composites. The availability of polypropylene over a range of molecular weights with similar material properties (e.g. melting temperature and tacticity) is limited. Therefore, the ability to use a single catalyst system to generate polypropylene with a range of molecular weights is an attractive goal. In this contribution the use of styrene as a chain‐terminating agent is explored, in order to produce materials with a range of molecular weights from a single catalyst system. It is found that the molecular weight of the polypropylene produced can be varied in the range from 120 000 to 9000 g mol?1 using the Me2Si(Ind)2ZrCl2/methylaluminoxane catalyst system. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry |
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Keywords: | metallocene polypropylene styrene‐terminated chain‐termination agent |
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