SYNTHESIS OF THE BLOCK-COPOLYMER OF STYRENE AND 1-BUTENE WITH A NOVELSUPPORTED TI-CATALYST

The present investigation deals with sequential block copolymerization of styrene and 1-butene with a novel MgCl2-supported TiCl4 catalyst m odified with a rare earth compound NdClx(OR)(y) (SN-1 catalyst), which was developed in our laboratory. The catalytic activities are 1300-25 00 g/g . Ti . h. Analyses of copolymers with solvent extraction, C-13- NMR, WAXD, GPC, and DSC was performed. The results indicate that the S N-1 catalyst selectively gave crystalline diblock copolymers of isotac tic polystyrene and isotactic poly(l-butene), with the styrene unit co ntent of 30-60 mol %. (C) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.