Ziegler-Natta polymerization catalysts
Catalizadores Ziegler-Natta (polimerización estereoespecífica)
- Date
- 1953-1954 · confidence high
- Place
- Max Planck Institute for Coal Research, Mülheim an der Ruhr (Ziegler); Polytechnic of Milan (Natta)
- Credited to
- Karl Ziegler and Giulio Natta
- People
- 👤 Giulio Natta1903–1979👤 Karl Ziegler1898–1973
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Titanium and aluminium alkyl compounds polymerise ethylene at low pressure (Ziegler) and propylene with isotactic stereoregularity (Natta). They allow linear, crystalline, controlled polymers, the basis of the polyolefin industry.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1963, shared, though there was tension over Natta's priority in applying Ziegler's catalyst to propylene.
What it led to
- High-density polyethylene and polypropylene
- Organometallic catalysis
- Metallocene catalysts
Built on
- Polymers as covalent macromolecules (Staudinger)1920-1922
- organoaluminium chemistry
- Staudinger's macromolecules
Made possible
- Ziegler-Natta catalysts: HDPE and polypropylene1953-1954
- Conductive polymers1977
- HDPE
- stereoregular rubbers