Neodymium-Based Catalyst for the Coordination Polymerization of Butadiene: From Fundamental Research to Industrial Application

The homogeneous neodymium-based catalyst systems containing neodymium carboxylate, isobutyl aluminum compound and chlorinating agent were successfully developed for the coordination polymerizations of butadiene, isoprene and styrene in our laboratory. The catalyst possessed high catalytic activity to butadiene polymerization in hexane, leading to an obvious decrease in the dosage of catalyst to low level, e.g Nd/Bd (molar ratio) was around 35 ppm. Simultaneously, the catalyst exhibited high stereo-selectivity to butadiene polymerization in hexane and polybutadienes with extremely high cis-1,4 configuration of around 99% could be produced under appropriate reaction conditions. Based on our interesting fundamental research works, the continuous butadiene polymerizations were conducted to produce high cis-1,4 polybutadiene in pilot scale in SINOPEC. The industrial equipments (capacity: 30 000 t/a) for production of neodymium butadiene rubber (Nd-BR) were successfully built in SINOPEC in 2012 and the innovation technology has been achieved from fundamental research to industrial application for large scale production of Nd-BR. The Nd-BR products are now commercially available with the trade names of BR Nd40, BR Nd50, BR Nd60 with ML (1+4) 100 degrees C of 45 +/- 5, 55 +/- 5, and 63 +/- 5, respectively. The excellent properties of these high cis-1,4 Nd-BR products lead to their especially suitable application in green-tire components.