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Updated: Jan 30, 2026

Characteristics of Precipitation-formed Polyethylene Glycol Microgels Are Controlled by Molecular Weight of Reactants
Published on: December 23, 2013
A highly active Ni(II)-triadamantylphosphine catalyst for ultrahigh-molecular-weight polyethylene synthesis
Andrew L Kocen1, Maurice Brookhart2, Olafs Daugulis3
1Welch Center for Excellence in Polymer Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Houston, Houston, TX, 77024-5003, USA.
Abstract:
Here we report that the tri-1-adamantylphosphine-nickel complex [Ad3PNiBr3]-[Ad3PH]+ upon activation with an alkylaluminoxane catalyzes the polymerization of ethylene to ultrahigh-molecular-weight, nearly linear polyethylene (Mn up to 1.68 × 106 g mol-1) with initial activities reaching 3.7 million turnovers per h-1 at 10 °C. Copolymerizations of ethylene with α-olefins such as 1-hexene and 1-octadecene, as well as tert-butyldimethyl(dec-9-en-1-yloxy)silane give the corresponding copolymers with no decrease in activity.
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