STUDIES ON THE SYNTHESIS OF ETHYLENE COPOLYMERS AND THEIR PROPERTIES

The copolymerization of ethylene and 5-ethylidene-2-norbornene (ENB) c atalyzed by metallocene catalysts system is reported in this paper. Th e catalysts include Et(Ind)(2) ZrCl2/MAO and Cp2ZrCl2/MAO. The resulti ng copolymer contains an ethylidene group which can be readily convert ed to a hydroxyl group by hydrogen borane. Then the hydroxyl group in turn can be utilized for grafting with epsilon-caprolactone. The depen dence of the graft weight percentage on the reaction time was also stu died. The graft copolymer is a compatibilizer for various polyethylene blends with engineering plastics. A functional polyethylene can be ea sily synthesized by the copolymerization of ethylene and 9-decen-1-ol using a homogeneous catalytic system of Et(Ind)(2)ZrCl2/MAO. The resul ting functional polyethylene was characterized by NMR, DSC, IR and TGA ; and can also be utilized for grafting with epsilon-caprolactone. The grafted copolymer is also an effective compatibilizer.