Stereospecific a-olefin polymerization with heterogeneous catalysts

The stereospecificity for α‐olefin polymerization catalyst is governed by the catalysts’ ability to discriminate between the two faces of the prochiral α‐olefin molecule for a given mode of insertion. This chapter concentrates on the ability to control the polymer properties with heterogeneous stereospecific catalysts, focusing on polypropylene (PP) catalysts in particular. Heterogeneous PP catalysts typically operate in particle forming processes, such as slurry, bulk, or gas‐phase polymerization technologies. The demonstration of stereoregular polymerization of an α‐olefin led to a rapid growth in new polymers and industrial applications as the potential of Ziegler–Natta catalysts was realized. The mechanism of polymerization for the catalyst system was controlled by the ligand and was termed site control. Over the past three decades, there have been a large number of industrial and academic publications in the field of single site polyolefin polymerizations