Effect of experimental conditions on propylene polymerization with ethylene(fluorenyl)(cyclopentadienyl)zirconium dichloride/methylaluminoxane catalyst system

In this work, the performance of the ethylene(fluorenyl)(cyclopentadienyl)zirconium dichloride/methylaluminoxane (Et(Flu)(Cp)ZrCl2/MAO) catalytic system for the polymerization of propylene was evaluated. The polymerizations were carried out at different temperatures, monomer pressures and aluminum/zirconium molar ratios ([Al]/[Zr]). The effect of these variables on the catalyst activity and on the polymer characteristics was investigated using a proposed statistical experiment planning model. Significant influences of the experimental conditions mainly on the catalyst activity, and also on the weight-average molecular weight, glass transition temperature and syndiotacticity of the produced polypropylenes, were observed.