Synthesis of polar vinyl monomer-olefin copolymers by alpha-diimine nickelcatalyst

Vinyl acetate, methyl methacrylate, acrylonitrile and methyl vinyl ketone w ere investigated for co- and terpolymerization with ethylene and ethylene-p ropylene. Precursor [bis(N,N ' -dimesityl-imino)acenaphthene]dibromonickel, activated by methylaluminoxane was used as a catalyst system and trialkyla luminium was employed to block the polar groups for these polymerizations, Polymerization activities of the order of magnitude of 10(6) in the case of vinyl acetate and methyl methacrylate, and 10(5) in the case of acrylonitr ile were achieved. Microanalysis and GPC of acrylonitrile copolymers found about 17 units of acrylonitrile per polymer chain, Copolymers with very dif ferent properties from the parent homopolymers were obtained in all cases e xcept that of methyl vinyl ketone. (C) 2001 Society of Chemical Industry.