Enhancing the Initial Rate of Polymerisation of the Reduced Phillips Catalyst by One Order of Magnitude

Catalyst engineering! Controlled thermal treatment with N2O affords easy active-site engineering of the CrII/SiO2 Phillips catalyst, overcoming some of the structural problems limiting ethylene polymerisation activity and leading to a large increase in the initial rate of polymerisation at room temperature (see figure). The results may be highly relevant to the production of some varieties of polyethylene.