Computational Insights into the Multisite Nature of the Phillips CrOx/SiO2 Catalyst for Ethylene Polymerization: The Perspective of Chromasiloxane Ring Size and F Modification

The famous Phillips CrOx/SiO2 catalyst is characterized by its multisite nature and the resulting broad molecular weight distribution (MWD) of its polyethylene (PE) products. However, the multiplicity of active sites and their catalytic behavior relating to the broad MWD have scarcely been studied. Given the high and comparable efficiency of calcination and F modification in regulating the active site multiplicity of this catalyst, eight polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS)-based cluster models comprising four-, six-, and eight-membered chromasiloxane rings (4CR, 6CR, and 8CR) were partially or fully capped by OH or F and employed for density functional theory (DFT) calculations related to C2H4 polymerization. For the OH-capped models, the results emphasized the dominant size effect of the chromasiloxane ring (CR), where the model with a smaller CR was less abundant but could produce higher-molecular-weight (MW) PE with a higher activity. The predicted MW indicated the very broad MWD of the PE products, consistent with that of the products generated from low-temperature calcinated CrOx/SiO2. However, depending on the size of the CR, these models responded unequally to F modification. Specifically, the more abundant sites with 8CR were promoted more obviously, and the MW of their PE products was increased. This makes the polymerization rate higher and the MWD of the PE narrower, which agrees with those of the PE products synthesized by F-modified CrOx/SiO2 calcined at a low temperature. Furthermore, the origin of the effects of CR size and F modification was properly illustrated in terms of both steric and electronic variations.

Automated summary

The Phillips CrOx/SiO2 catalyst is famous for its multisite nature and broad molecular weight distribution (MWD). In this study, density functional theory (DFT) calculations were used to explore the effects of chromasiloxane ring size and F modification on the catalyst's active sites and MWD of its products.