Studies on the Synthesis of Ethylene Copolymers and Their Properties

Abstract The copolymerization of ethylene and 5‐ethylidene‐2‐norbornene (ENB) catalyzed by metallocene catalysts system is reported in this paper. The catalysts include Et(Ind) 2 ZrCl 2 /MAO and Cp 2 ZrCl 2 /MAO. The resulting copolymer contains an ethylidene group which can be readily converted to a hydroxyl group by hydrogen borane. Then the hydroxyl group in turn can be utilized for grafting with ϵ‐caprolactone. The dependence of the graft weight percentage on the reaction time was also studied. The graft copolymer is a compatibilizer for various polyethylene blends with engineering plastics. A functional polyethylene can be easily synthesized by the copolymerization of ethylene and 9‐decen‐l‐ol using a homogeneous catalytic system of El(Ind) 2 ZrCl 2 /MAO. The resulting functional polyethylene was characterized by NMR, DSC, IR and TGA; and can also be utilized for grafting with ϵ‐caprolactone. The grafted copolymer is also an effective compatibilizer.