48.5.5 Hydrocarbon Polymers (Update 2020)

AbstractThis review is an update to the original Science of Synthesis chapter (Section 48.5) on hydrocarbon polymers, published in 2009. This update focuses on the typical methods for the synthesis of polyethene and polypropene reported over the past two decades. In addition, it has been supplemented with some general synthesis procedures for copolymers of ethene or propene with polar vinyl monomers as well as typical synthetic methods for other polyalk-1-ene [poly(α-olefin), PAO] products. The methods covered are mainly based on early-transition-metal, non-metallocene catalysts and late-transition-metal catalysts.