Structural investigations of porous MgCl2–2-butanol molecular adduct as support for olefin polymerization

• Porous Ziegler–Natta (Z–N) catalyst support, MgCl2·4(Me-CHOH-Et), is reported.
• TiClx/MgCl2 derived from the above molecular adduct exhibits high surface area.
• Scope to improve activity by optimizing textural, and hence electronic properties.

A new heterogeneous Ziegler–Natta (Z–N) catalyst support material, MgCl2·4(CH3CH(OH)CH2CH3) (Mg2BuOH) has been synthesized. 2-Butanol, a linear, secondary alcohol was chosen for the generation of an active MgCl2 support which results in a Z–N catalyst with TiCl4. Significant feature of this work is the formation of rod shaped molecular adduct with highly porous character. Adduct material is characterized by XRD, TG-DTA, Raman spectroscopy, solid-state NMR and SEM. Activity of the Z–N catalyst supported on Mg2BuOH for ethylene polymerization is comparable with that of commercially available heterogeneous Z–N catalyst. However, there is scope to improve the activity by optimizing textural properties.

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