CHARACTERIZATION OF METHYLALUMINOXANES AND DETERMINATION OF TRIMETHYLALUMINUM USING PROTON NMR

New methods for characterization of methylaluminoxanes (MAO) and deter mination of trimethylaluminum (TMA) using proton NMR are reported. Add ition of excess perdeuteriotetrahydrofuran to sharpen and shift the TM A peak followed by curve fitting to remove residual overlap between th e TMA and MAO peaks allows accurate, precise, and rapid quantitation o f TMA and MAO in solution. The analysis also provides determination of all the solution components of MAO preparations and the number of met hyl groups per aluminum in MAO when combined with an independent deter mination of the aluminum content.