Polymerization of allylbenzene with metallocene catalysts

Abstract

Homopolymerization of allylbenzene was carried out with various metallocene/methylaluminoxane (MAO) catalysts. Different polymerization behavior was observed depending upon the catalysts empolyed. rac-Et(Ind)(2)ZrCl2 and rac-Me2Si(Ind)(2)ZrCl2 gave semicrystalline polyallylbenzenes while i-Pr(CpFlu)ZrCl2 and CpTiCl3 did not give any polymeric product, The Cp2ZrCl2 gave amorphous polyallylbenzene with low molecular weight. The effect of temperature on the polymerization was investigated with a constant Al/Zr ratio. The temperature showing maximum catalyst activity is higher for the ansa metallocene catalysts than Cp2ZrCl2 catalyst. The IR and NMR spectra indicated that the polyallylbenzene consisted of allylbenzene repeating unit and no isomerization occurred.