Polymerization of propylene using supported, chiral, ansa-metallocene catalysts: production of polypropylene with narrow molecular weight distributions

The chiral ansa-metallocenes 1,2-ethylenebis( eta exp 5 -1-indenyl)- and 1,2-ethylenebis( eta exp 5 -1-tetrahydroindenyl)zirconium dichloride (1 and 2, respectively) can be supported on partially dehydroxylated SiO sub 2 and Al sub 2 O sub 3 , and these supported systems can be used to polymerize propylene in the presence of methylaluminoxane. The most active supported systems were derived from partially dehydroxylated SiO sub 2 of Al sub 2 O sub 3 that had been pretreated with excess trimethylaluminum. The properties of the polypropylene produced are essentially indistinguishable from that produced under homogeneous conditions using these same catalysts.