Structure and reactivity of Ziegler-Natta catalyst intermediates

This paper provides a survey of our recent research on chemistry that occurs among components of Ziegler-Natta catalysts. Since the amount of information regarding this topic is enormous we have focused on alkoxo compounds, which are attracting more and more attention in polymer industry. In this concept article we discuss recent studies on the inherently very complex catalyst system that involve isolation of various solid polynuclear metal-containing species, determination of their structures by X-ray crystallography, and relating their structures to the activity in polymerization. The presented research may be useful in predicting trends for the development of new single-site catalysts as well as new co-catalysts.