Polymer, Vol.80, 109-114, 2015
Thermal and mechanical properties of ultrahigh-molecular-weight ethylene/1-hexene copolymers prepared by living polymerization with fluorinated bis(phenoxy-imine) titanium(IV) catalyst
This work reports thermal and mechanical properties of a series of olefin copolymers synthesized by living coordination copolymerization of ethylene (E) and 1-hexene (H) with a fluorinated bis(phenoxyimine) titanium(IV) catalyst. The EH copolymers have ultrahigh molecular weights (UHMW), very narrow molecular weight distributions (MWD) and random distributions of ethylene and 1-hexene units along chain backbones. It is found that both high molecular weight and high 1-hexene incorporation give improved tensile properties, such as high modulus and excellent elasticity, in comparison to commercial polyolefin elastomers. Samples with M-w > 10(6) g/mol and F-2 > 25 mol% do not break even at an elongation of 1700%, and still have recoveries of >95%. An UHMW di-block copolymer containing a crystalline PE block and an amorphous EH block is also synthesized and compared. DSC, TEM and tensile tests reveal some interesting unique properties. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:Olefin copolymer;Polyolefin elastomer (POE);Ultrahigh molecular weight;Ethylene;1-Hexene;FI catalyst;Sequence length distribution;Thermal and mechanical properties