A Hydrocarbon Soluble, Molecular and "Complete" Al-Cocatalyst for High Temperature Olefin Polymerization

Gaia Urciuoli; Francesco Zaccaria; Cristiano Zuccaccia; Roberta Cipullo; Peter H M Budzelaar; Antonio Vittoria; Christian Ehm; Alceo Macchioni; Vincenzo Busico

doi:10.3390/polym15061378

A Hydrocarbon Soluble, Molecular and "Complete" Al-Cocatalyst for High Temperature Olefin Polymerization

Polymers (Basel). 2023 Mar 9;15(6):1378. doi: 10.3390/polym15061378.

Authors

Gaia Urciuoli^{1

2

3}, Francesco Zaccaria^{1

3}, Cristiano Zuccaccia^{2

3}, Roberta Cipullo^{1

3}, Peter H M Budzelaar^{1

3}, Antonio Vittoria^{1

3}, Christian Ehm^{1

3}, Alceo Macchioni^{2

3}, Vincenzo Busico^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Sciences, Federico II University of Naples, 80126 Napoli, Italy.
² Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology and CIRCC, University of Perugia, 06123 Perugia, Italy.
³ Dutch Polymer Institute (DPI), P.O. Box 902, 5600 AX Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

Abstract

The dinuclear aluminum salt {[iBu₂(DMA)Al]₂(μ-H)}⁺[B(C₆F₅)₄]^- (AlHAl; DMA = N,N-dimethylaniline) is the prototype of a new class of molecular cocatalysts for catalytic olefin polymerization, its modular nature offering easy avenues for tailoring the activator to specific needs. We report here, as proof of concept, a first variant (s-AlHAl) bearing p-hexadecyl-N,N-dimethylaniline (DMA_C16) units, which enhances solubility in aliphatic hydrocarbons. The novel s-AlHAl was used successfully as an activator/scavenger in ethylene/1-hexene copolymerization in a high-temperature solution process.

Keywords: borate activators; catalyst activation; methylaluminoxane; olefin polymerization; soluble cocatalyst.

Grants and funding

This research forms part of the research program of DPI (project 857). This work was financially supported by the Dutch Polymer Institute (Project #857), PON—Ricerca e Innovazione (DM 1062), the University of Perugia and MUR (AMIS, “Dipartimenti di Eccellenza 2018−2022” program).