Nanoseeded Catalytic Terpolymerization of CO, Ethylene, and Propylene by Size-Controlled SiO₂@Sulfonated Microporous Organic Polymer

Nanoseeds with silica@sulfonated microporous organic polymer (SiO₂@S-MOP) structure were prepared by the formation of MOP layers on the surface of SiO₂ spheres and the successive sulfonation of the MOPs. Using the SiO₂@S-MOPs as seed materials, catalytic terpolymerization of CO, ethylene, and propylene was studied. The designed SiO₂@S-MOP nanoseeds not only activated catalyst precursors but also controlled the catalytic formation of polyketones. While the homogeneous system showed a severe reactor fouling and a wide molecular weight distribution of terpolymer, the SiO₂-190@S-MOP system resulted in the narrow molecular weight distribution of terpolymers without a reactor fouling. The size of nanoseeds was critical to obtaining the granular terpolymers. Moreover, the SiO₂-190@S-MOP system showed a good activity of 17.2 kg of polymer/g of Pd, comparable to the homogeneous system with 19.6 kg of polymer/g of Pd. We believe that more various nanoseeded catalytic polymerizations can be developed using new nanoseed materials adopting the MOP chemistry.