Since the 1950s the production of polyolefins has been dependent on Ziegler-Natta catalysts. The Ziegler-Natta polymerization of polyolefins is the basis for a huge global plastics market that now amounts to 111 million metric tons annually and is growing in the foreseeable future at 6 - 7 percent per year. In 2007, researchers at the University of Maryland developed a breakthrough technology that uses a novel catalyst system to improve the efficacy of living Ziegler-Natta polymerization. With this invention, the amount of final product is not dependent on the amount of active catalyst, but simply the amount of metal surrogate, diethyzine (DEZ), employed. While this major improvement to plastics synthesis enables the production of cheaper, more environmentally friendly materials, the process still depends on large amounts of the highly reactive and expensive DEZ.

These same University of Maryland researchers have recently identified a modified chemical reaction that avoids using large quantities of DEZ while maintaining and improving on the benefits of their previous discovery. This new reaction, titled "ternary living coordinative chain transfer polymerization" (t-LCCTP), replaces the highly reactive DEZ with a safer and less expensive commodity trialkylaluminum. It then makes use of small quantities of DEZ as a chain-transfer mediator to greatly enhance the overall rate of chain transfer and significantly lessen the environmental impact of plastics production. Using these methods allows for the rapid, cost-effective, scalable production of polyolefins.

File Number: LS-2009-128 

Web site: http://otc.umd.edu