Chemically modified mesoporous solids and their use in the polymerisation of hydrocarbon monomers

Abstract

The controlled reaction of Lewis acids with mesoporous silica can be used to prepare solid cationic initiators useful for the polymerisation of hydrocarbons. These materials not only offer the advantage of enabling simpler processes and reduced waste but also show interesting and often dramatic differences from the behaviour of conventional homogenous cationic initiators due to solid surface and pore effects.