Copolymerization of ethylene with α-olefins over highly active supported Ziegler-Natta catalyst with vanadium active component

The new highly active supported vanadium-magnesium catalyst (VMC) has been studied in α-olefin (1-butene, 1-hexene)/ ethylene copolymerization in the presence of hydrogen. Data on the effect of α-olefin/ethylene ratio in copolymerization on the content of branchings in copolymers, kinetic profile, copolymer yield, molecular weight and molecular weight distribution of copolymers have been obtained. It was found that both α-olefins are effective chain transfer agents in the ethylene-α-olefins copolymerization. The copolymerization ability of VMC is much higher than that of the well known titanium-magnesium catalysts. It was found that the use of optimal conditions of ethylene/α-olefin polymerization on the VMC catalyst makes it possible to obtain copolymers with a high yield (10-16 kg gcat-1 cat for 2 h) the copolymers having broad and bimodal MWD. Data on the branchings distribution in copolymers prepared with VMC catalyst have been obtained via fractionation of copolymers on the fractions with narrow polydispersity (Mw/Mn ≈ 2). Quite a uniform distribution of branchings over fractions with different molecular weight was found in distinction to inhomogeneous distribution of branchings in copolymers produced over the well known supported titaniu-magnesium catalyst.