NMR study of the comonomer effect in metallocene poly(propylene-co-1-pentene) copolymers synthesized at low temperature

The influence of the comonomer in the synthesis of poly(propylene-co−1-pentene) copolymers, with rac-(dimethylsilylbis(1-indenyl))ZrCl/Methylaluminoxane at low temperature, has been studied. Changes in the catalyst activity and molecular weight have been analyzed as a function of copolymer composition, and associated with both content and nature of chain defects. The thorough characterization of chain-end double bonds by means of the H NMR technique highlights the particular chain termination pathway, which underlies the so-called comonomer effect. A specific termination mechanism is proposed based on the preferential regio-irregular interaction of the active site with 1-pentene molecules, instead of the one related to the β-H atom of the last regular inserted unit, either propene or 1-pentene.The authors acknowledge the financial support of MINECOSpain (project MAT2013-47972-C2-1-P). Dr. A. García-Peñas is also grateful to MICINN (project MAT2010-19883) for his FPI predoctoral fundingPeer Reviewe