Journal of Polymer Science Part A: Polymer Chemistry, Vol.38, No.9, 1417-1426, 2000
Copolymerization of ethylene and alpha-olefins with combined metallocene catalysts. II. Mathematical modeling of polymerization with single metallocene catalysts
The relation between the polymerization conditions and the distributions of molecular weight (MWD) and chemical composition (CCD) of poly(ethylene-co-1-hexene) made with single supported metallocene catalysts was investigated. Understanding the behavior of each metallocene under different polymerization conditions is necessary for designing combined metallocene catalysts to produce tailor-made polyolefins. In this article, a simple mathematical model based on experimental results is developed and combined with the bimodality criterion developed in Part I of this series to predict polymerization conditions and metallocene combinations that will produce polymers with desired MWDs and CCDs.
Keywords:metallocene;polyethylene;molecular weight distribution;chemical-composition distribution;control of polymer microstructure;linear low-density polyethylene