Fluorous miniemulsions: A powerful tool to control morphology in metallocene-catalyzed propene polymerization

The nonaqueous miniemulsion polymerization of liquid propene using highly water sensitive metallocene catalysts is presented. In the emulsion perfluoromethylcyclohexane is applied as continuous phase in which the monomer is polymerized to high molecular weights. The droplets are stabilized by specially designed of hydrocarbon/perfluorinated block copolymers. This technique offers the possibility to generate polyolefin nanoparticles with a narrow size distribution and diameters below 100 nm. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at www.interscience.wiley.com.]