Tailored multimodal and ultra-broad distributed polyethylene (PE) reactor blends produced by ethylene polymerization on co-supported (post)metallocene catalysts remarkably enhance mechanical and tribological properties of commodity PE and even outperform glass-fiber reinforced polyolefins and polyamides. Integral part are supported two- or three-site catalysts combining statistically distributed single-site complexes able to produce multiple polyethylene nanophases like PE-wax, HDPE or UHMWPE simultaneously without affecting their individual catalytic nature. Unparalleled by conventional or micron-sized mixtures of ultrahigh and low weight polyethylene, this in-situ approach enables the incorporation of up to 30 wt.-% of nanophase-separated and disentangled ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) without impairing melt processing and classical injection molding. Moreover, during classical injection molding nanophase-separated PE reactor blends enable extended chain UHMWPE nanofiber formation (known as “shish-kebab”) in extensional flow field accounting for extensive PE self-reinforcement. Besides remarkable increases in stiffness, tensile strength and impact strength tribological measurements further revealed improved wear resistance competing with polyamide and compression molded UHMWPE.

Melt-processable and nanostructured polyethylene reactor blends entering a new range of mechanical performance and wear resistance

255th National Meeting (2018)

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