Halide-Free Neodymium Phosphate Based Catalyst for Highly cis-1,4 Selective Polymerization of Dienes

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Abstract

Neodymium-based Ziegler-Natta type catalytic systems are known to produce polydienes with high cis-1,4 content. It is generally believed that in Ziegler-Natta catalytic systems, a halide or pseudohalide, whether in the catalyst itself or a separate source, is required for the success of the polymerization. In this work, we have synthesized an unusual halide-free neodymium diethyl phosphate catalyst for diene polymerization. This neodymium complex combined with triisobutylaluminum (TIBA), formed a binary catalytic system and was used to polymerize β-myrcene. The catalytic system displays high stereospecificity and produces poly(β-myrcene) with 96% cis-1,4 content and a relatively narrow molecular weight distribution (Mᵥᵥ/Mₙ = 1.80). Also, kinetic studies indicated the catalytic system gives a pseudo-living polymerization. The block copolymer poly(β-myrcene)-b-poly(isoprene) was successfully synthesized by sequential monomer addition, further demonstrating the pseudo-living nature of polymerization with the neodymium diethyl phosphate catalyst.

Description

Supplementary material is available on publisher's website. Use the DOI link below.

Keywords

Methylaluminoxane, Crystals--Structure, Polymerization, Butadiene, Neodymium, Chemistry

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National Science Foundation (CHE-1566059) and Welch Foundation (AT-1740)

Rights

CC BY-NC 4.0 (Attribution-NonCommercial), ©2019 The Royal Society of Chemistry

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