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Kinetic study of olefin polymerization with a supported metallocene catalyst. II. Ethylene/1‐hexene copolymerization in gas phase
Author(s) -
Chakravarti S.,
Ray W. Harmon
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.1194
Subject(s) - comonomer , ethylene , metallocene , copolymer , 1 hexene , post metallocene catalyst , polymer chemistry , hexene , catalysis , materials science , polymerization , chemistry , organic chemistry , composite material , polymer
A kinetic study of ethylene/1‐hexene copolymerization is conducted with a supported metallocene catalyst in a gas‐phase reactor. The investigation into the kinetics of ethylene/1‐hexene copolymerization includes the effects of operational parameters such as the reaction temperature, pressure, and comonomer concentration. The large variations in gas‐phase composition using only an initial charge of 1‐hexene are illustrated by experiment. To remedy this, the ability to control the comonomer composition of 1‐hexene online for the entire duration of the reaction is demonstrated. Online perturbation techniques are implemented to determine key kinetic parameters such as the activation energies for propagation and catalyst deactivation. From pressure perturbation results, a reaction rate order close to 1 is obtained for ethylene in the presence of 1‐hexene. Finally, all the parameters obtained from the study are compared to those determined from ethylene–propylene (E–P) copolymerization. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 80: 1096–1119, 2001