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Polymerization catalysis

Imagine polypropylene

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Linear polyethylene and isotactic polypropylene, the two largest-volume polymers on the market, were invented in the 1950s thanks to diverse mixes of serendipity, intuition and talent. After 70 years, a thoughtful revisitation of those ground-breaking discoveries can still be revealing and inspirational.

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Fig. 1: The evolution of Ziegler–Natta catalysts for polypropylene.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Università di Napoli Federico II, Naples, Italy

    Giuseppe Antinucci, Roberta Cipullo & Vincenzo Busico

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  1. Giuseppe Antinucci
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  2. Roberta Cipullo
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  3. Vincenzo Busico
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Correspondence to Vincenzo Busico.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Antinucci, G., Cipullo, R. & Busico, V. Imagine polypropylene. Nat Catal 6, 456–457 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-023-00975-8

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