Walter Kaminsky Livres

With an enormous velocity, olefin polymerization has expanded to one of the most significant fields in polymers since the first industrial use about 50 years ago. In 2005, 100 million tons of polyolefins were produced - the biggest part was catalyzed by metallorganic compounds. The Hamburg Macromolecular Symposium 2005 with the title "Olefin Polymerization" involved topics such as new catalysts and cocatalysts, kinetics, mechanism and polymer reaction engineering, synthesis of special polymers, and characterization of polyolefins. The conference combined scientists from different disciplines to discuss latest research results of polymers and to offer each other the possibility of cooperation. This is reflected in this volume, which contains invited lectures and selected posters presented at the symposium.

45 years after the discovery of transition metals and organometallics as cocatalysts for the polymerization of olefins and for organic synthesis, these compounds have not lost their fascination. The birthday of Karl Ziegler, the great pioneer in this metalorganic catalysis, is now 100 years ago. Polyolefins and polydienes produced by Ziegler-Natta catalysis are the most important plastics and elastomers. New impulses for the polymerization of olefins have been brought about by highly active metallocenes and other single site catalysts. Just by changing the ligands of the organometallic compounds, the structure of the polymers produced can be tailored in a wide manner. In invited lectures and posters, relevant aspects of the metalorganic catalysts for synthesis and polymerization are discussed in this book. This includes mechanism and kinetics, stereochemistry, material properties, and industrial applications.