All Polyethylene Compositions Based on Ultrahigh Molecular Weight Polyethylene Synthesized over Binary Catalyst including Zirconocenes of Various Designs

Tatiana M. Ushakova; Elena E. Starchak; Sergey S. Gostev; Sergey S. Gusarov; Igor I. Arutyunov; Vadim G. Krasheninnikov; Aleksandr Z. Voskoboynikov; Ludmila A. Novokshonova

doi:10.1007/s10118-025-3420-9

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All Polyethylene Compositions Based on Ultrahigh Molecular Weight Polyethylene Synthesized over Binary Catalyst including Zirconocenes of Various Designs

RESEARCH ARTICLE | Updated：2025-10-30

- All Polyethylene Compositions Based on Ultrahigh Molecular Weight Polyethylene Synthesized over Binary Catalyst including Zirconocenes of Various Designs
- Chinese Journal of Polymer Science Vol. 43, Issue 11, Pages: 2094-2101(2025)
- Affiliations：
  
  a.N.N. Semenov Federal Research Center for Chemical Physics Russian Academy of Sciences, 119991 Moscow, Russian Federation
  b.Federal State Budget Educational Institution of Higher Education, MIREA – Russian Technological University, 119571 Moscow, Russian Federation
  c.Department of Chemistry, M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russian Federation
- Author bio：
  
  star2004i341@rambler.ru
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1007/s10118-025-3420-9
  CLC：
- Received：12 May 2025，
  
  Accepted：02 August 2025，
  
  Online First：11 October 2025，
  
  Published：05 November 2025
- Accepted：
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Ushakova, T. M.; Starchak, E. E.; Gostev, S. S.; Gusarov, S. S.; Arutyunov, I. I.; Krasheninnikov, V. G.; Voskoboynikov, A. Z.; Novokshonova, L. A. All polyethylene compositions based on ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene synthesized over binary catalyst including zirconocenes of various designs. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2025, 43, 2094–2101

Tatiana M. Ushakova, Elena E. Starchak, Sergey S. Gostev, et al. All Polyethylene Compositions Based on Ultrahigh Molecular Weight Polyethylene Synthesized over Binary Catalyst including Zirconocenes of Various Designs[J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2025, 43(11): 2094-2101.
Ushakova, T. M.; Starchak, E. E.; Gostev, S. S.; Gusarov, S. S.; Arutyunov, I. I.; Krasheninnikov, V. G.; Voskoboynikov, A. Z.; Novokshonova, L. A. All polyethylene compositions based on ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene synthesized over binary catalyst including zirconocenes of various designs. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2025, 43, 2094–2101 DOI： 10.1007/s10118-025-3420-9.

Tatiana M. Ushakova, Elena E. Starchak, Sergey S. Gostev, et al. All Polyethylene Compositions Based on Ultrahigh Molecular Weight Polyethylene Synthesized over Binary Catalyst including Zirconocenes of Various Designs[J]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2025, 43(11): 2094-2101. DOI： 10.1007/s10118-025-3420-9.

摘要

MWD curves of pure UHMWPE

pure low molecular weight polyethylene (LMWPE) and bimodal MWD curves of the reactor compositions on their base with different content of LMWPE fraction synthesized by ethylene polymerizaition over binary catalysts including zirconocene catalysts of various designs.

Abstract

Single-step ethylene polymerization over a binary catalyst

including zirconocene precatalysts of various designs

has been studied to obtain polymer compositions based on ultrahigh-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) and low-molecular-weight HDPE (LMWPE) directly in synthesis. Zirconocenes

rac

-(CH

)

SiInd

ZrCl

(

Zr-1

) and

rac

-(C

)CpIndZrCl

(

Zr-2

) activated with methylaluminoxane (MAO) were used as the components of the binary catalyst. It has been shown that the use of

Zr-1

/MAO and

Zr-2

/MAO in ethylene polymerization at 30 °C leads to the production of UHMWPE with

=1000 kg·mol

–1

and LMWPE with

=18 kg·mol

–1

respectively. Reactor polymer compositions (RPC) with LMWPE fraction contents ranging from 9 wt% to 42 wt% were obtained when a molar fraction of

Zr-2

in the binary catalyst (

Zr-1

Zr-2

)/MAO varied in the range from 0.3 to 0.85. A study of the molecular weight characteristics of RPC showed that it has a wide bimodal molecular weight distribution (MWD) and includes UHMWPE (

=1000 kg·mol

–1

) and LMWPE (

=18 kg·mol

–1

) fractions. The degree of crystallinity of the polymer products was determined using the DSC method. The tensile properties and melt indices of the materials were studied depending on the LMWPE fraction content in the polymer composition. UHMWPE/LMWPE compositions with high tensile properties and fluidity at a load of 5 kg were obtained.

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