Copolymerization of ethylene with non-vinyl polar monomers

Abstract

Introduction of functional groups on polyethylene endows it with a higher surface property and thus various catalysts have been developed for the copolymerization of ethylene with polar vinyl monomers. Aside from vinyl monomers, however, other classes of polar monomers have not found application in the copolymerization with ethylene. Here, in this short review article, our latest studies on catalyst development aiming at the use of non-vinyl polar monomers and the properties of the resulting copolymers are summarized.

Recent Advances in the Copolymerization of Ethylene with Polar Comonomers by Nickel Catalysts

“…Further modification to these catalysts by Brookhart, Jordan, Nozaki, Shimizu, Carrow, Chen, Cai, Jian, Li, etc., led to enhanced catalytic properties. Reviews have been extensively summarized based on catalyst classifications by Chen [11,[28][29][30], Jian [10,31,32], Nozaki [2,33], Li [34], Cao [35], etc., including advanced catalytic tuning strategies containing external stimuli [36] and secondary interactions [37][38][39][40], the coordination-insertion mechanism [3,41] containing the monomer poisoning effect [42] and the functions of custom-made polar monomers [31,32]. Except for the most challenging substrates such as fundamental polar monomers, a variety of nickel catalysts with bidentate ligands have also been developed for the effective copolymerization of olefins with nonvinyl polar monomers [33], including disubstituted ethene comonomers, ester-disubstituted carbene and CO [43][44][45][46], e.g., the nonalternating copolymerization of ethylene with CO to incorporate in-chain keto groups in polyethylene chains with high molecular weight while retaining desirable material properties [44].…”