Process for producing styrenic polymer

Abstract

There is disclosed a process for producing a styrenic polymer, especially, syndiotactic polystyrene, which comprises polymerizing a styrenic monomer by the use of (a) a transition metal compound, (b) a coordination complex compound comprising an anion in which a plurality of radicals are bonded to a metal and a cation or methylaluminoxane, (c) an alkylating agent (alkyl group-containing aluminum, magnesium or zinc compound) and (d) a reaction product between a straight-chain alkylaluminum having at least two carbon atoms and water (alkylaluminoxane). The above process is capable of simplifying the production process and producing high-performance styrenic polymer having a high degree of syndiotactic configuration in high catalytic activity without deteriorating the catalyst activity, increasing the amounts of residual metals in the objective polymer or leaving the decomposition products of the alkylaluminum therein, thereby curtailing the production cost of the objective polymer.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.