The active species of the chromium (phillips type) catalysts for the polymerization of ethylene: A unifying approach

From literature data it is concluded that the rate of the reduction, alkylation, polymer chain growth, and chain transfer reactions of three chromium(II) and one chromium(III) surface species all increase with decreasing electron density at the chromium ion. This electron density has previously been measured by the IR shift of the stretching vibration of one CO molecule terminally adsorbed on these chromium ions. It is observed that the reduction half time decreases proportional to the increasing Lewis acidity and that the rate of the polymer chain growth reaction increases exponentially for three chromium surface species with increasing CO stretching vibration. Due to the large difference of the polymer chain growth rates for the two chromium (II) species (Ad and Cd), common in the normal Phillips catalyst, both contribute almost equally to the polymer product, although the Ad species outnumbers the Cd one by more than 3 to 1.