Achievement

IGERT Fellow Andrew Patrick investigated single component polymerization catalysts to make polyethylene, industry's most-produced plastic. Patrick's catalysts are unique in that they are based on iron, the most abundant transition element in earth's crust, and that they do not require wasteful co-catalysts such as methylaluminoxane (MAO), which contribute significantly to the price and energy consumption of polyethylene production. Patrick synthesized and characterized a library of such catalysts, then performed an exhaustive series of polymerizations comparing his catalysts to industrial catalysts that require MAO. While Patrick's catalysts were less productive, they yielded higher quality polyethylene. Additionally, Patrick collaborated with Karl Wieghardt at MPI Muehlheim (Germany) to elucidate the mechanistic workings of these catalysts. As a part of this, Andrew spent two weeks in Germany gathering data with world-class spectroscopic equipment not available at Cornell.