Contributions to the Experimental Investigation of the Nascent Polymerisation of Ethylene on Supported Catalysts, 1: A Quenched-Flow Apparatus for the Study of Particle Morphology and Nascent Polymer Properties

A detailed investigation of the kinetics, morphology and polymer properties observed during the polymerisation of ethylene on a Ziegler-Natta catalyst at very short times (t 40 ms) in a novel, quenched-flow reactor is presented. It was found that for times shorter than a tenth of a second, the observed rate of polymerisation was significantly higher than expected, and that the crystallinity of the nascent ethylene homopolymer was of the order of 25 to 30% - much lower than expected. Evidence is presented that shows that fragmentation is essentially complete in a small fraction of a second.