TEMPERATURE RISING ELUTION FRACTIONATION OF LINEAR POLYOLEFINS

Temperature rising elution fractionation (t.r.e.f.) is a technique for the fractionation and characterization of polymers with high crystallizability that has gained some popularity over the past few years, in particular for the copolymers of olefins. This review will cover the general aspects of t.r.e.f. and describe some of the most revealing applications published in the literature. In addition, recent measurements that have been carried out on the t.r.e.f./C-13 n.m.r. spectroscopic characterization of polypropylenes synthesized using metallocene catalysts, as well as using classical heterogeneous Ziegler-Natta catalysts, are reported on herein.