Copolymerization of propylene and norbornene with different metallocene catalysts

Propylene and norbornene were copolymerized by metallocene/MAO catalysts. The organometallic compounds rac-[Me2C(Ind)2]ZrCl2 (1) and [Me2C(Cp)(Flu)]ZrCl2 (2), [Ph2C(Cp)(2,7-ditBuFlu)]ZrCl2 (3) and [Me2Si(3-tBuCp)(NtBu)]TiCl2 (4) were used to catalyze polymerization series, in which the influence of the molar fraction of norbornene in the feed and of the polymerization temperature were investigated in detail. The obtained polymers, which exhibit a wide range of properties with glass transition temperatures above 200 °C, were characterized by 13C NMR spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and gel permeation chromatography techniques.In this article, the emphasis is placed on the copolymerization behaviour of the catalysts and the properties of the obtained polymers, while other articles concentrate on NMR investigations of propylene/norbornene copolymers.