Homopolymerization of allylbenzene was carried out with various metallocene
/methylaluminoxane (MAO) catalysts. Different polymerization behavior was o
bserved depending upon the catalysts empolyed. rac-Et(Ind)(2)ZrCl2 and rac-
Me2Si(Ind)(2)ZrCl2 gave semicrystalline polyallylbenzenes while i-Pr(CpFlu)
ZrCl2 and CpTiCl3 did not give any polymeric product, The Cp2ZrCl2 gave amo
rphous polyallylbenzene with low molecular weight. The effect of temperatur
e on the polymerization was investigated with a constant Al/Zr ratio. The t
emperature showing maximum catalyst activity is higher for the ansa metallo
cene catalysts than Cp2ZrCl2 catalyst. The IR and NMR spectra indicated tha
t the polyallylbenzene consisted of allylbenzene repeating unit and no isom
erization occurred.