Literature Seminar Abstract

Roughly 350 million tons of plastic enters the global economy each year. Trends point to increases of 100 million tons more each decade. To make matters more dire, most commercial materials are composed of more than one polymer, adding the complexity of separation of one polymer from another. As recycling these materials is costly and time consuming, society turns to landfills and incineration. One proposed solution is to employ thermoplastic elastomeric homopolymers with tunable thermal and mechanical properties and innate recyclability. In 1995, The Waymouth group investigated the synthesis of stereoblock thermoplastic elastomeric polypropylene by employing a catalyst with oscillating stereocontrol. In order to address the lack of control in homopolymer stereoblock growth, a rational catalyst design was combined with manipulated reaction conditions. The mechanism of an oscillating metallocene as a strategy to tune the stereoblock content in a homopolymer, along with the impact this landmark study has had on the field of polymer catalysis into 2018, will be discussed.

1. Coates, G. W.; Waymouth, R. ” Oscillating Stereocontrol: A strategy for the Synthesis of Thermoplastic Elastomeric Polypropylene” Science, 1995, 267, 217-219.