Chemical modification of silica support to improve the branching ability of Phillips catalyst

Dwivedi, Sumant; Gujral, Satnam Singh; Taniike, Toshiaki; Terano, Minoru

doi:10.1351/PAC-CON-12-03-10

Pure Appl. Chem., 2013, Vol. 85, No. 3, pp. 533-541

http://dx.doi.org/10.1351/PAC-CON-12-03-10

Published online 2012-12-16

Chemical modification of silica support to improve the branching ability of Phillips catalyst

Sumant Dwivedi^1,2, Satnam Singh Gujral^1,2, Toshiaki Taniike² and Minoru Terano²*

¹ Department of Chemistry, University of Delhi, Delhi 110 007, India
² School of Materials Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 1-1 Asahidai, Nomi, Ishikawa 923-1292, Japan

Abstract: A variety of modified Phillips catalysts were synthesized by employing three kinds of chemical modifiers for silica support: (1) organic modification with silane coupling agents, (2) Lewis acidic modification with typical metal alkyl or alkoxide, and (3) modification with transition-metal alkoxide. The activity and branching ability of these catalysts were investigated for ethylene polymerization. It was revealed that the chemical modification of silica support was a good methodology for controlling the catalyst activity as well as the branching level in resultant polyethylene.