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Temporal Control over Two‐ and Three‐State Living Coordinative Chain Transfer Polymerization for Modulating the Molecular Weight Distribution Profile of Polyolefins
Author(s) -
Wallace Mark A.,
Sita Lawrence R.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.202105937
Subject(s) - polyolefin , polymerization , chain transfer , molar mass distribution , living polymerization , materials science , polymer chemistry , biological system , chemistry , chemical engineering , polymer , chemical physics , nanotechnology , organic chemistry , radical polymerization , layer (electronics) , biology , engineering
A highly versatile new strategy for manipulating the molecular weight profiles, including breadth, asymmetry (skewness) and modal nature (mono‐, bi‐, and multimodal), of a variety of different polyolefins is reported. It involves temporal control over two‐ and three‐state living coordinative chain transfer polymerization (LCCTP) of olefins in a programmable way. By changing the identity of the R′ groups of the chain transfer agent, ER′ n , with time, different populations of chains within a bi‐ or multimodal polyolefin product can be selectively tagged with different end‐groups. By changing the nature of the main‐group metal of the CTA, programmed manipulation of the relative magnitudes of the dispersities of the different maxima that make up the final MWD profile can be achieved. This strategy can be implemented with existing LCCTP materials and conventional reactor methods to provide access to scalable and practical quantities of an unlimited array of new polyolefin materials.