Claims
- 1. A method of preparing predominantly amorphous polyolefin polymers comprising polymerizing an .alpha.-olefin monomeric raw material in the presence of a catalyst comprising:
- a pro-catalyst comprising:
- a magnesium halide,
- an aluminum halide,
- a tetravalent titanium halide,
- an electron donor; and
- a silane having the formula R.sub.1 R.sub.2 Si(OR.sub.3)(OR.sub.4), wherein R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 are each an H, C.sub.1-6 alkyl, aryl, C.sub.5-12 cycloalkyl, each of which may be unsubstituted, mono- or di-substituted, and R.sub.3 and R.sub.4 are H, C.sub.1-6 alkyl, or a mono- or di-substituted C.sub.1-6 alkyl; and
- a co-catalyst comprising an organometallic compound, or reaction products of the pro-catalyst and the co-catalyst, wherein the electron donor is present in an amount sufficient to reduce the stickiness of the resultant flexible polyolefin polymers, wherein the pro-catalyst is produced by first mixing a silane, a magnesium halide and an aluminum halide and then, subsequently, combining an electron donor and a titanium halide with the first mixture, and wherein the polyolefin polymers have a crystallinity from about 15 J/g to 60 J/g.
- 2. The method of claim 1, which further comprises selecting the monomeric raw material to be alpha-olefin monomers.
- 3. The method of claim 2, which further comprises selecting alpha-olefin monomers to be monomers of propylene, ethylene, butene, pentene, octene, or mixtures thereof.
- 4. The method of claim 2, which further comprises selecting the plurality of alpha-olefin monomers to be propylene and at least one additional monomer having between about 2 to 12 carbon atoms per molecule.
- 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the additional monomer is at least one of ethylene, 1-butene, 1-pentene or 1-octene.
- 6. The method of claim 3, which further comprises providing ethylene in the monomeric raw material in an amount of about 1 to 40 weight percent.
- 7. The method of claim 6, which further comprises providing ethylene in the monomeric raw material in an amount of about 1 to 20 weight percent.
- 8. The method of claim 1, which further comprises adding hydrogen to the polymerization in an amount of less than about 10 weight percent.
- 9. The method of claim 1, which further comprises selecting the organometallic compound to be a metal alkane.
- 10. The method of claim 9, which further comprises selecting the organometallic compound to be an aluminum alkane.
- 11. The method of claim 1, which further comprises adding external modifier to the catalyst in an amount sufficient to increase the crystallinity of the polyolefin polymers to a desired level of between about 4.6 J/g to 35 J/g.
- 12. The method of claim 1, which further comprises adding external modifier to the catalyst in an amount sufficient to increase the crystallinity of the polyolefin polymers to a desired level of between about 15 J/g to 60 J/g.
- 13. The method of claim 12, which further comprises selecting the external modifier to be a silane component, selecting the desired level of crystallinity to be about 25 J/g to 55 J/g, and selecting the polyolefin polymer to have a melt flow rate of between about 0.3 to 30 g/10 min. at 230.degree. C.
- 14. The method of claim 12, wherein ethylene is provided in an effective amount to preclude substantial modification by the external modifier of at least one physical property of the polymer.
- 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the physical property is selected to include crystallinity of propylene domains in the polymer.
- 16. The method of claim 13, which further comprises selecting the melt flow rate of the polyolefin polymer to be between about 0.4 g/10 min. to 60 g/10 min.
- 17. The method of claim 16, which further comprises selecting the melt flow rate of the polyolefin polymer to be between about 0.4 g/10 min. to 15 g/10 min.
- 18. The method of claim 1, which further comprises reducing the stickiness to a sufficiently low level so that only between about 1 to 12 weight percent of the polyolefin polymer is soluble in methylethyl ketone.
- 19. The method of claim 18, which further comprises reducing the stickiness to a sufficiently low level so that only between about 1 to 5 weight percent of the polyolefin polymer is soluble in methylethyl ketone.
- 20. The method of claim 1, which further comprises selecting the sufficient polymerization conditions to include a feed of monomers having at least about 70 weight percent propylene, a temperature of about 130.degree. F. to 175.degree. F., and a reactor pressure sufficient to maintain the propylene in a liquid phase.
- 21. The method of claim 1, which further comprises selecting the silane to have R.sub.1 as a C.sub.5-12 cycloalkyl, R.sub.2 as C.sub.1-6 alkyl, and R.sub.3 and R.sub.4 each as a C.sub.1-6 alkyl.
- 22. The method of claim 21, which further comprises selecting the silane to have R.sub.1 as cyclohexyl, and R.sub.2, R.sub.3 and R.sub.4 each as methyl.
- 23. The method of claim 12, which further comprises selecting the external modifier to be a silane having the formula R.sub.1 R.sub.2 Si(OR.sub.3) (OR.sub.4), wherein R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 are each an H, C.sub.1-6 alkyl, aryl, C.sub.5-12 cycloalkyl, each of which may be unsubstituted, mono- or di-substituted, and R.sub.3 and R.sub.4 are H, C.sub.1-6 alkyl, or a mono- or di-substituted C.sub.1-6 alkyl.
- 24. A method of preparing predominantly amorphous polyolefin polymers which comprises:
- preparing a pro-catalyst by mixing a magnesium halide, an aluminum halide, and a silane having the formula R.sub.1 R.sub.2 Si(OR.sub.3)(OR.sub.4) to form a first mixture, and, subsequently adding an electron donor, and a tetravalent titanium halide to the first mixture, wherein R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 are each an H, C.sub.1-6 alkyl, aryl, C.sub.5-12 cycloalkyl, each of which may be unsubstituted, mono- or di-substituted, and R.sub.3 and R.sub.4 are each an H, C.sub.1-6 alkyl, or a mono- or di-substituted C.sub.1-6 alkyl;
- adding a co-catalyst comprising an organometallic compound to the pro-catalyst to prepare a catalyst;
- contacting a monomeric raw material and the catalyst under conditions sufficient to cause polymerization of the raw material to produce a predominantly amorphous polymerization product containing polyolefin polymers, wherein the catalyst reduces the stickiness of the resultant polyolefin polymers; and
- recovering polyolefin polymers having a crystallinity from about 15 J/g to 60 J/g from the polymerization product.
- 25. A method of preparing predominantly amorphous polyolefin polymers comprising polymerizing an .alpha.-olefin monomeric raw material in the presence of a catalyst comprising:
- a pro-catalyst comprising:
- a magnesium halide,
- an aluminum halide,
- a tetravalent titanium halide,
- an electron donor comprising at least one of 2,6-lutidine, 2,6-dichloropyridine, or 6-chloro-2-picoline; and
- a silane having the formula R.sub.1 R.sub.2 Si(OR.sub.3)(OR.sub.4), wherein R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 are each an H, C.sub.1-6 alkyl, aryl, C.sub.5-12 cycloalkyl, each of which may be unsubstituted, mono- or di-substituted, and R.sub.3 and R.sub.4 are H, C.sub.1-6 alkyl, or a mono- or di-substituted C.sub.1-6 alkyl; and
- a co-catalyst comprising an organometallic compound, or reaction products of the pro-catalyst and the co-catalyst, wherein the electron donor is present in an amount sufficient to reduce the stickiness of the resultant flexible polyolefin polymers, wherein the pro-catalyst is produced by first mixing a silane, a magnesium halide and an aluminum halide and then, subsequently, combining an electron donor and a titanium halide with the first mixture, and wherein the polyolefin polymers have a crystallinity from about 15 J/g to 60 J/g.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 08/779,762, filed Jan. 7, 1997, now allowed U.S. Pat. No. 5,948,720.
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Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
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Parent |
779762 |
Jan 1997 |
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