Novel titanium precursors for homo- and co-polymerization of α-olefins: catalytic activity and materials characterization

Billions of pounds of commodity plastics, based on polyolefin resins, are produced annually and are used in wide variety of sectors in our daily lives. Despite its long history, the polyolefin industry is continuing to grow steadily and remains technologically driven because of continuous discoveries of new catalyst and applications. As a consequence polymerization of α-olefins has been one of the focus areas for catalyst research both in industry and academia. Enormous efforts have been dedicated to fine tune of the processes and to obtain better control of the polymerization and to produce tailored polymer structures. The literature review of the thesis is focused on the use of Group 4 metal complexes as precursors for α-olefin homo - and copolymerizations. More precisely, the review concentrates on the use of complexes bearing [O,O] and [O,N] type ligands which have gained considerable interest. Furthermore, the chemistry of group 4 metals complexes bearing homoleptic N,N-dialkylcarbamato ligands as potential precursors for olefin polymerization are discussed. [...]