Ethylene/Octene Multi-Block Copolymer and Process for Producing Same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2023058913-A1
Application number	US-202017788856-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 23, 2020
Priority date	Dec 27, 2019
Publication date	Feb 23, 2023
Grant date	—

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a process. In an embodiment, the process includes contacting ethylene and octene under polymerization conditions at a temperature greater than 125° C. with a catalyst system comprising (i) a first polymerization catalyst having the structure of Formula (III), a second polymerization catalyst having the structure of Formula (I), and (iii) a chain shuttling agent. The process includes forming an ethylene/octene multi-block copolymer having a normalized OOO triad content greater than 0.25. The present disclosure provides the resultant composition produced by the process. In an embodiment, the composition includes an ethylene/octene multi-block copolymer having a normalized OOO triad content greater than 0.25.

First claim

1 . A process comprising:
contacting ethylene and octene under polymerization conditions at a temperature greater than 125° C. with a catalyst system comprising (i) a first polymerization catalyst having the structure of catalyst 1;

(ii) a second polymerization catalyst having the structure of catalyst 2;

(iii) a first co-catalyst that is a borate-based co-catalyst;
(iv) a second co-catalyst that is an aluminum-based co-catalyst;
(v) a chain shuttling agent;
maintaining, during the contacting, an aluminum to hafnium molar ratio from 7.1 to 15.6; and
forming an ethylene/octene multi-block copolymer having a normalized OOO triad content greater than 0.25.

2 . The process of claim 1 comprising contacting the ethylene and octene under polymerization conditions at a temperature from 130° C. to 170° C.; and
forming an ethylene/octene multi-block copolymer having hard segments and soft segments, the soft segments having a soft segment melting temperature (SS-Tm) from −30° C. to 30° C., the ethylene/octene multi-block copolymer having a first TGIC peak temperature (T p1 ) and a second TGIC peak temperature (T p2 )
wherein T p2 fulfills Equation (A)
T p2 ≤0.0068×(SS-Tm) 2 +0.07×(SS-Tm)+73.2.

3 . A composition comprising:
an ethylene/octene multi-block copolymer comprising hafnium and aluminum at an aluminum to hafnium molar ratio from 7.1 to 15.6; and the ethylene/octene multi-block copolymer has a normalized OOO triad content greater than 0.25.

4 . The composition of claim 3 wherein the ethylene/octene multi-block copolymer comprises from 10 mol % to 30 mol % of octene.

5 . The composition of claim 4 wherein
the ethylene/octene multi-block copolymer comprises hard segments and soft segments, the soft segments having a soft segment melting temperature (SS-Tm) from −30° C. to 30° C., the ethylene/octene multi-block copolymer having a first TGIC peak temperature (T p1 ) and a second TGIC peak temperature (T p2 )
wherein T p2 fulfills Equation (A)
T p2 ≤0.0068×(SS-Tm) 2 +0.07×(SS-Tm)+73.2.

6 . The composition of claim 5 wherein the ethylene/octene multi-block copolymer has T p1 from 125° C. to 150° C. and a T p2 from 68° C. to 90° C.

7 . The composition of claim 6 wherein the ethylene/octene multi-block copolymer has a glass transition temperature (Tg) from −70° C. to −55° C.

8 . The composition of claim 7 wherein the ethylene/octene multi-block copolymer has a density from 0.855 to 0.890 grams per cubic centimeter (g/cc).

9 . The composition of claim 8 wherein the ethylene/octene multi-block copolymer has an unconfined yield strength (UYS) from 0 lb/ft 2 to less than 200 lb/ft 2 at 21° C. after two months.

10 . The composition of claim 9 wherein the ethylene/octene multi-block copolymer has a funnel flow from greater than 150 g/s to 200 g/s after 6 weeks.

11 . The composition of claim 10 wherein the ethylene/octene multi-block copolymer has an unconfined yield strength (UYS) from 0 lb/ft 2 to less than 73 lb/ft 2 at 0° C. after two months.

Assignees

• Dow Global Technologies Llc

Inventors

• Pesek Stacy L
• Munro Jeffrey C
• Zhou Zhe
• Young Andrew J
• Castelluccio Anthony J
• Karjala Jr Thomas Wesley

Classifications

• C08F210/16 Primary

  Copolymers of ethene with alpha-alkenes, e.g. EP rubbers · CPC title

• C08F4/65912

  in combination with an organoaluminium compound · CPC title

• C08F4/64044

  NN · CPC title

• C08F4/65904

  in combination with another component of C08F4/64 · CPC title

• C08F4/64193

  OOOO · CPC title