TY - JOUR
T1 - Encapsulation of catalyst in block copolymer micelles for the polymerization of ethylene in aqueous medium
AU - Boucher-Jacobs, Camille
AU - Rabnawaz, Muhammad
AU - Katz, Joshua S.
AU - Even, Ralph
AU - Guironnet, Damien
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Dow Chemical Company through Grant RPS 226772 AA. The authors would like to thank Andrew Hughes of the Dow Chemical Company for helpful discussions, Mikaela Dressendorfer for her help on some block copolymers synthesis, the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory for facilities and instrumentation and Dr. Schroeder's group for TEM images (Drs. Bo Li and Songsong Li).
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Dow Chemical Company through Grant RPS 226772 AA. The authors would like to thank Andrew Hughes of the Dow Chemical Company for helpful discussions, Mikaela Dressendorfer for her help on some block copolymers synthesis, the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory for facilities and instrumentation and Dr. Schroeder’s group for TEM images (Drs. Bo Li and Songsong Li).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Author(s).
PY - 2018/12/1
Y1 - 2018/12/1
N2 - The catalytic emulsion polymerization of ethylene has been a long-lasting technical challenge as current techniques still suffer some limitations. Here we report an alternative strategy for the production of semi-crystalline polyethylene latex. Our methodology consists of encapsulating a catalyst precursor within micelles composed of an amphiphilic block copolymer. These micelles act as nanoreactors for the polymerization of ethylene in water. Phosphinosulfonate palladium complexes were used to demonstrate the success of our approach as they were found to be active for hours when encapsulated in micelles. Despite this long stability, the activity of the catalysts in micelles remains significantly lower than in organic solvent, suggesting some catalyst inhibition. The inhibition strength of the different chemicals present in the micelle were determined and compared. The combination of the small volume of the micelles, and the coordination of PEG appear to be the culprits for the low activity observed in micelles.
AB - The catalytic emulsion polymerization of ethylene has been a long-lasting technical challenge as current techniques still suffer some limitations. Here we report an alternative strategy for the production of semi-crystalline polyethylene latex. Our methodology consists of encapsulating a catalyst precursor within micelles composed of an amphiphilic block copolymer. These micelles act as nanoreactors for the polymerization of ethylene in water. Phosphinosulfonate palladium complexes were used to demonstrate the success of our approach as they were found to be active for hours when encapsulated in micelles. Despite this long stability, the activity of the catalysts in micelles remains significantly lower than in organic solvent, suggesting some catalyst inhibition. The inhibition strength of the different chemicals present in the micelle were determined and compared. The combination of the small volume of the micelles, and the coordination of PEG appear to be the culprits for the low activity observed in micelles.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41467-018-03253-5
DO - 10.1038/s41467-018-03253-5
M3 - Article
C2 - 29483639
AN - SCOPUS:85042904265
VL - 9
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
SN - 2041-1723
IS - 1
M1 - 841
ER -