Development of Polyethylene Copolymers Manufacturing Technologies and Synthesis of New Functionalized Polyolefins with Designed Catalysts

Advanced supported metallocene catalysts for commercialization were developed in the consequence of improving catalyst performances and accomplishing industrial tasks. The relationship between molecular structures and physical properties of ethylene and α-olefin copolymers produced with metallocene catalysts was also investigated. Metallocene catalyzed ethylene/α-olefin copolymers have excellent physical properties (high strength, high clarity, good heat sealability) owing to a homogeneous molecular structure that had never been achieved by conventional Ziegler–Natta catalysts. We have also succeeded in producing long chain branched ethylene copolymers with narrow molecular weight distributions but excellent melt properties by the use of the catalyst technologies to control of the branches in a polymer chain. Moreover, we have found the first example of metallocene-catalyzed allyl alcohol or allylamine incorporation having only one CH2 chain spacer into the nonpolar polymer backbone, using new metallocene and methylaluminoxane with high activity at high temperature. This is the first example of predominant chain end and/or site-selective introduction of polar groups into the polyolefins.