The work combines studies of a recently reported, high activity catalyst with experiments designed to induce the olefin polymerization step to occur at a measurable rate under vacuum conditions. The latter approach will overcome the normal enthalpic and entropic barriers that normally constrain polymerization processes to high pressures by performing two types of experiment. In the first experiment supersonic molecular beams of energetic monomers will be used to surmount energetic barriers. In the second experiment the monomer will be tethered to the surface to create a high local concentration of reactants at the active site so that the reaction may efficiently proceed. The studies will use a quartz crystal microbalance to measure polymerization kinetics in situ, and a combination of Auger electron spectroscopy, high resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy and mass spectrometery to investigate the surface processes. %%% The research, in the general area of Analytical and Surface Chemistry, focuses on a study of various new approaches for examining the mechanism of surface-catalyzed olefin polymerization using a variety of surface science techniques to investigate the surface processes. The work promises to provide new understanding of an important industrial catalytic process,and have significance in the area of polymer thin films for microelectronic packaging applications.
