Effects of trisobutylaluminium on styrene polymerization with Ni(acac)2/MAO/SiO2 catalyst system activated by methylaluminoxane

SummaryStyrene polymerization with Ni(acac)2/MAO/SiO2 catalytic system was carried out in the presence of methylaluminoxane (MAO), triisobutylaluminum (TIBA) or MAO and TIBA mixture as activators. The catalytic system activated only by TIBA produced polymer with 53% of isotacticity. When the catalytic system was activated by a mixture of MAO and TIBA the polymer isotacticity increases as MAO concentration increases. In this case, the maximum of isotacticity was 59%. The polymer has presented lower molecular weight than the polymer obtained by MAO as activators and the polymer microstructure was not explained by Markov first-order model. In addition, 13C NMR spectra of the polymers obtained after extraction with MEK, have indicated that there are two active sites in this catalytic system.