Polymerization of methyl methacrylate with ethylene bridged heterodinuclear metallocene of samarium and titanium

A novel heterodinuclear catalyst, ethylene bridged samarocene and titanocene chloride (Sm–Ti), was used both as a single component catalyst (cat.) and also by activation with triisobutyl aluminum (TIBA) to polymerize methyl methacrylate (MMA). The binary catalyst demonstrated higher activity than the single component, but the molecular weight of the resultant PMMA is lower. Ultrahigh molecular weight PMMA (1.5×106) was obtained at an attractive conversion (87%) without any cocatalyst. The effects of polymerization parameters, such as temperature, time, molar ratios of Al(i-Bu)3/cat. and MMA/cat., were studied in detail. The results showed that the catalytic activity had a rather different dependence on the polymerization temperature with/without TIBA. High molecular weight PMMA was much more easily prepared in a bulk system than in toluene solution. The polymer yielded with about 65% syndiotacticity by 1H NMR and 75% by IR spectroscopy, but its stereoregularity did not change too much with polymerization temperature and the concentration of TIBA.