Structure Determination of the delta-MgCl2 Support in Ziegler-Natta Catalysts

T Wada and G Takasao and M Terano and P Chamniingkwan and T Taniike, JOURNAL OF THE JAPAN PETROLEUM INSTITUTE, 65, 88-96 (2022).

DOI: 10.1627/jpi.65.88

delta-MgCl2 support is an essential component of highly active Ziegler- Natta catalysts. The microstructure of delta-MgCl2 in modern industrial catalysts is extremely disordered, so is hard to determine using only powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD). Several structural models have been proposed, such as nano-sized platelet crystallites and one-dimensional chain-like structures. We used atomic pair distribution function (PDF) based on total X-ray scattering and simulations with nanoparticle models in addition to PXRD to investigate the detailed structure of delta- MgCl2. We found that delta-MgCl2 in modern catalysts consists of nano- sized platelet crystallites with stacking disorder, regardless of the preparation protocol. Here, we review our recent findings of the structure determination of delta-MgCl2.

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