Syntheses of single-site catalysts and ethylene copolymers with polar groups

Iron(II) dichloride complexes and iron(III) trichloride complexes were synthesized with a 2,6-bis(imino)pyridyl ligand and obtained in 78.7% and 47.5% theoretical experimental yield respectively. The results of the elemental analysis were in agreement with the expected values. The 2,6-diacetyl pyridine bis(2,4,6-trimethylanil) iron(II) chloride catalysts was remarkable more active than the 2,6-diacetyl pyridine bis(2,4,6-trimethylanil) iron(III) chloride catalyst. Initially, the catalysts were tested for the polymerization of ethylene, which occurred at relatively high activities (11,158 kg HDPE / mol Fe h [mon]) at 35 C. Then we copolymerized ethylene and 1-hexene using iron(III) based catalyst which also led to high activities results. We were able to copolymerize the polar monomer, methylacrylate, with ethylene using the iron(II) based catalyst, and we incorporated close to 1 mol % of methyl acrylate in the copolymer. GPC results show that the ethylene / methyacrylate copolymers have low polydispersities. TGA, DSC, FTIR, and H-NMR methods were used to characterize the copolymers