Ethylene--α-Olefin Copolymers by Hydrogenation of Highly Stereoregular -1,4 Polydienes: Synthesis and Structural Characterization.

The homogeneous non-catalytic hydrogenation of several types of iso- and syndiotactic -1,4 poly(1,3-diene)s with diimide, formed by thermal decomposition of -toluene-sulfonyl-hydrazide, was examined. Perfectly alternating ethylene/1-alkene copolymers having different tacticity (i.e., isotactic and syndiotactic), which in some cases are difficult to synthesize by simple stereospecific co-polymerization of the corresponding monomers, were obtained. All the copolymers synthesized were fully characterized from a structural, morphological, and rheological point of view through different analytical techniques (FT-IR, NMR, GPC, DSC, RX).