Chain Walking: A New Strategy to Control Polymer Topology

Ethylene pressure has been used to control the competition between isomerization (chain walking) and monomer insertion processes for ethylene coordination polymerization catalyzed by a palladium-α-diimine catalyst. The topology of the polyethylene varies from linear with moderate branching to "hyperbranched" structures. Although the overall branching number and the distribution of short-chain branching change very slightly, the architecture or topology of the polyethylene changes from linear polyethylene with moderate branches at high ethylene pressures to a hyperbranched polyethylene at low pressures.