Catalyst composition and process for polymerizing olefins

Claim 1

A catalyst composition for use in the polymerization of of at least one olefin, optionally with up to 5 mole% of a diolefin, said catalyst composition being composed of (A) a titanium catalyst component containing magnesium, titanium, halogen and an electron donor as essential ingredients, (B) an organoaluminum compound, and (C) a third component which is an oxygen-or nitrogen-containing compound, characterised in that the electron donor of (A) is selected from (a) mono- and polyesters of saturated polycarboxylic acids in which at least one of the esteric carbonyl groups is linked to a tertiary or quaternary carbon atom or to a linear or branched chain with at least 4 carbon atoms; (b) mono- and polyesters of unsaturated polycarboxylic acids in which at least two carboxyl groups are linked to vicinal, double bond forming carbon atoms and in which at least one of the hydrocarbyl radicals R of the COOR groups is a saturated or unsaturated branched radical with 3 to 20 carbon atoms, or is an aryl or arylalkyl radical with 6 to 20 carbon atoms; (c) mono- and diesters of aromatic dicarboxylic acids with the COOH groups in the ortho-position, in which at least one of the hydrocarbyl radicals R contains from 2 to 20 carbon atoms; (d) mono- and polyesters of aromatic hydroxy compounds containing at least two hydroxyl groups in the ortho-position, or esters of hydroxyacids containing at least one hydroxyl group in the ortho-position with respect to the carboxyl group; (e) esters of saturated or unsaturated carboxylic acids RCOOR', in which at least one of the hydrocarbyl radicals R and R' is a saturated or unsaturated branched radical with 3 to 20 carbon atoms, or is an arylalkyl radical with 7 to 20 carbon atoms, or is an acyl radical with 3 to 20 carbon atoms linked to the esteric carbonyl group directly or through a methylene group, and in which the R' radical, when linear, is a hydrocarbyl radical containing from 1 to 20 carbon atoms; and (f) esters of carbonic acid of the formula: wherein at least one of the hydrocarbyl radicals R, which can be the same or different, is a radical having 3 to 20 carbon atoms, and in that (C) is selected from (i) heterocyclic compounds represented by the formula wherein R 2 represents an alkylene group having 2 or 3 carbon atoms or a C 2- C 3 alkylene group substituted by a substituent selected from alkyl, acyloxy and alkoxy groups; each of R 3 , R 4 , R and R 6 represents a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group having 1 to 12 carbon atoms, at least one of R 3 and R 4 and at least one of R 5 and R 6 are said alkyl groups, R 3 and R 4 together, or R 5 and R together, may form a cycloalkyl group having 5 or 6 carbon atoms when taken together with the carbon atom to which they are bonded, and one of R 4 and R 6 may represent a group of the formula and -M-represents -0- or in which R 7 represents a member selected from a hydrogen atom, alkyl group having 1 to 12 carbon atoms, an aryl group having 6 to 12 carbon atoms and a metal which may be substituted by a lower alkyl group, (ii) heterocyclic compounds represented by the formula wherein each of R , R , R and R 6 ' represents an alkyl group having 1 to 12 carbon atoms, and ℓ is a positive integer of 2 to 10, and (iii) ketones of the following formula wherein each of R 8 and R 9 represents a group selected from alkyl groups having 3 to 20 carbon atoms and aryl groups having 6 to 20 carbon atoms and at least one of R 8 and R 9 represents a tertiary alkyl group or an ortho-alkyl substituted aryl group.