Process for the preparation of a graft copolymer comprising a polyolefin main chain and one or a multiple polymer side chains and the products obtained therefrom

A process for the preparation of a graft copolymer comprising a polyolefin main chain and one or multiple polymer side chains, the process comprising the steps of:

• A) copolymerizing a first type of olefin monomer and a second type of metal-pacified functionalized olefin monomer using a catalyst system to obtain a polyolefin main chain having a metal-pacified functionalized short chain branch, the catalyst system comprising:
• i) a metal catalyst or metal catalyst precursor comprising a metal from Group 3-10 of the IUPAC Periodic Table of elements;
• ii) a co-catalyst selected from the group consisting of MAO, DMAO, MMAO, SMAO and fluorinated aryl borane or fluorinated aryl borate;
• B) reacting the polyolefin main chain having the metal-pacified functionalized short chain branch obtained in step A) with a metal substituting agent to obtain a polyolefin main chain having a functionalized short chain branch;
• C) forming a polymer side chain on the polyolefin main chain, wherein as initiators the functionalized short chain branch on the polyolefin main chain obtained in step B) is used to obtain the graft copolymer and a transesterification reaction is carried out to add polymer side chains to the polyolefin main chain,
• wherein the olefin monomer according to Formula I-A is selected from the group consisting of ethylene, propylene, 1-butene, 4-methyl-1-pentene, 1-pentene, 1-hexene, 1-heptene, 1-octene, 1-nonene, 1-decene, 1-undecene, 1-dodeceme, 1-tridecene, 1-tetradecene, 1-pentadecene, 1-hexadecene, 1-heptadecene, 1-octadecene, 1-cyclopentene, cyclohexene, norbornene, ethylidene-norbornene, and vinylidene-norbornene and one or more combinations thereof;
• wherein the metal catalyst used in step A) comprises a metal selected from the group consisting of Ti, Zr, and Hf,
• wherein step C) of obtaining a graft copolymer is carried out by a combination of ROP using a type of cyclic monomer and a transesterification reaction with a transesterifiable polymer.