Patent ID: 8354484

Claim:
A process for polymerization of ethylene and optionally one or more α-olefins under continuous, solution polymerization conditions to prepare a polymer, said process comprising conducting the polymerization in the presence of a catalyst composition comprising a transition metal complex and an activating cocatalyst under conditions that result in a value for the polymerization index, Ψ, that is greater than or equal to zero as determined by the following equation: Ψ=β 0 +β 1 T+β 2 X+β 3 E+β 4 ρ+β 5 I 2 , where, T is the polymerization temperature in degrees Celsius, X is the ethylene conversion in the reactor in mol percent, E is the catalyst efficiency in g polymer produced per μg of metal in the metal complex fed to the reactor per unit time, ρ is the resulting polymer density in units of g/ml, I 2 is the melt index of the polymer in units of dg/minute, and the equation constants, β 0 -β 5 , are unitless numbers having the values defined in the following table: Equation Constant Value β 0 −13796.073 β 1 111.445393 β 2 137.437524 β 3 62.5876298 β 4 −18931.8878 β 5 −108.320017 wherein the catalyst composition additionally comprises a chain transfer agent wherein the quantity of chain transfer agent present in the reactor is sufficient to decrease the Mw of the resulting polymer at least 30 percent compared to the molecular weight of the resulting polymer prepared in the absence of a chain transfer agent.