Preparation of novel thermoplastic elastomers by graft copolymerization using metallocene catalyst and cocatalyst system

Abstract

Poly(ethylene-ter-1-decene-ter-divinylbenzene) (PEDV) is prepared using rac-Et(Ind)2ZrCl2 and dimethylanilinium tetrakis-(pentafluorophenyl)borate/triisobutylaluminum as a metallocene catalyst and a cocatalyst system, respectively. The characteristic changes of the terpolymerization product according to the varying concentration of comonomers such as 1-decene and divinylbenzene (DVB) were also studied. The structure of poly(ethylene-ter-1-decene-ter-divinylbenzene) was determined by 1H NMR and the catalytic activity of the terpolymerization was found to be over 14000 kg/mol·h. PEDV-g-poly(styrenic monomers) were prepared using various styrenic monomers such as styrene, tert-butylstyrene, α-methylstyrene and p-methylstyrene. The structure of these graft copolymers was also elucidated by 1H NMR. The differential scanning calorimetry confirmed that the prepared graft copolymers had two glass transition temperatures and a high melting temperature range (250-309°C). © 2017, Chemical Publishing Co. All rights reserved.