In this work, we achieved the production of pristine multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)/ polyethylene (PE) composites composed of uniformly dispersed, PE-coated MWCNT strands, by the in situ polymerization of ethylene with Cp 2 ZrCl 2 immobilized onto the sidewalls of pristine MWCNTs as a catalyst. The prepared composites showed a highly increased Young's modulus (359%) as compared to homopolyethylene, due to well-dispersed pristine MWCNTs in the PE matrices. Electronic interactions and binding modes between zirconocenes and CNTs were investigated by theoretical and experimental methods, and both methods indicated that the sidewalls of CNTs could form a coordination bond with the positively charged active species and act as a ligand with strong electron donation.

Summary: We report a simple method for tuning catalytic property of a metallocene‐based catalyst, Cp2ZrCl2, for ethylene polymerization by the direct adsorption of Cp2ZrCl2 onto multi‐walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). The direct interactions between MWCNTs and the Cp rings of Cp2ZrCl2 controlled the polymerization behaviors, and we could generate polyethylene with an extremely high molecular weight ($\overline M _{\rm w}$ = 1 000 000) at 30 °C and under 1 atm of ethylene gas.Preparation of Cp2ZrCl2‐MWCNT.magnified imagePreparation of Cp2ZrCl2‐MWCNT.

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