ETHYLENE / 1-HEXENE COPOLYMERIZATION USING SUPPORTED METALLOCENE CATALYST SYSTEM

This work involves the use of a new catalyst which was recently patented by sabic.two catalysts based on bis cyclopentadienyl titanium dichloride (cp2ticl2) supported on pvc cat-e and cat-b weresynthesized according to the patent teachings. both catalysts were prepared in the same manner and contained the sameamount of titanium (iv) alkoxy, however, titanium (iv) ethoxide were used for cat-e whereas titanium (iv) n-butoxidewere used for cat-b.the aim of this paper is to investigate the prepared metallocene supported catalyst on ethylene and 1-hexenecopolymerization. also will attempt to investigate the influence of the titanium (iv) alkoxy on the kinetic result of thecopolymerization, the incorporation of 1-hexene in the copolymer and the molecular weight of the produced copolymerwill also be studied.this work shows that the presence of an a-olefin such as 1-hexene was found to cause a rate enhancement for ethyleneconsumption during the copolymerization reaction when using both catalysts cat-e and cat-b. cat-e showed higheractivity in comparison to cat-b in the copolymerization of ethylene and 1-hexene. the sem micrographs show that agreat reduction in polymer particles took place with the use of 1-hexene in the polymerization as comonomer.for both catalysts it was found that an increase in the concentration of 1-hexene causes a decrease in the copolymermolecular weight mw, accompanied with an increase in the copolymer content of 1-hexene.