Keto-Polyethylenes with Controlled Crystallinity and Materials Properties from Catalytic Ethylene–CO–Norbornene Terpolymerization

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.3c02309
• Publication Date: 2024-01-12T21:37:33Z
• Authors: Fabio De Stefano; Maximilian Baur; Claudio De Rosa; Stefan Mecking
• Keywords: Comonomer; Norbornene

Recent advances in Ni(II) catalyzed, nonalternating catalytic copolymerization of ethylene with carbon monoxide (CO) enable the synthesis in-chain keto-functionalized polyethylenes (keto-PEs) high-density polyethylene-like materials properties. Addition norbornene as a bulky, noncrystallizable comonomer during polymerization allows tuning crystallinity these keto-PE by randomly incorporated units polymer chain, while molecular weights are not adversely affected. Such crystallinity-reduced keto-PEs characterized softer better ductility and may therefore be more suited for, e.g., potential film applications.