COPOLYMERIZATION OF ETHYLENE AND 1-OCTADECENE WITH THE CP(2)ZRCL(2)/MAO AND CP(2)HFCL(2)/MAO CATALYST SYSTEMS

The comparison of the copolymers obtained with the Cp(2)ZrCl(2)/MAO and Cp(2)HfCl(2)/MAO catalyst systems showed that the catalyst having hafnocene was much more reactive towards 1-octadecene than zirconocene. The comonomer concentration had to be three times higher in the zirconocene copolymerization than in the hafnocene copolymerization when the level of 6 mol-% was reached. Although the hafnocene catalyst was more reactive towards 1-octadecene, the molecular weights were higher than in the copolymers obtained with the zirconocene catalyst. The total activity of the zirconocene was 10 times higher than with the hafnocene catalyst. With the zirconocene catalyst the activity towards ethylene was constantly increasing by increasing the comonomer concentration but stayed nearly constant with the hafnocene catalyst. It seemed that there is no rate enhancement effect upon comonomer addition with the hafnocene catalyst.