Discovery and evaluation of highly active imidotitanium ethylene polymerisation catalysts using high throughput...

Area of Science:

• Organometallic Chemistry
• Polymer Science
• Catalysis

Background:

• Titanium complexes are crucial in olefin polymerization.
• Developing efficient precatalysts is key to controlling polymer properties and reaction rates.
• Imidotitanium complexes offer unique electronic and steric properties for catalytic applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize a diverse library of imidotitanium precatalysts.
• To screen these precatalysts for high activity in ethylene polymerization.
• To identify lead compounds for further catalyst development.

Main Methods:

• Semi-automated synthesis of approximately 50 imidotitanium precatalysts with the general formula [Ti(NR)(Me(3)[9]aneN(3))Cl(2)].
• High-throughput screening of the synthesized precatalysts under ethylene polymerization conditions.
• Activity measurement in terms of kg of polyethylene produced per mole of catalyst per hour per bar of ethylene pressure.

Main Results:

• Successful synthesis of a family of ca. 50 imidotitanium precatalysts in good yields.
• Identification of seven highly active ethylene polymerization precatalysts.
• Achieved polymerization activities ranging from ca. 3,400 to 10,000 kg(PE) mol(-1) h(-1) bar(-1).

Conclusions:

• The developed imidotitanium precatalysts exhibit high activity in ethylene polymerization.
• Semi-automated synthesis and high-throughput screening are effective strategies for catalyst discovery.
• The identified lead precatalysts show promise for industrial applications in polyethylene production.