Patent ID: 7101936

Claim:
A propylene/diene copolymerization method comprising: (a) conducting a diene-free, ethene free polymerization step in the presence of a polymerization catalyst, an amount of propylene monomer, and optionally, an amount of hydrogen and/or other olefin monomer(s) under polymerization conditions comprising reaction temperature, pressure and time (t 1 ); and then (b) thereafter conducting a diene-incorporation polymerization step comprising combining the product of step (a), an amount of α,ω-diene selected from the group consisting of 1,4-pentadiene, 1,5-hexadiene, 1,6-heptadiene, 1,7-octadiene, 1,8 nonadiene, 1,9-decadiene, 1,10-undecadiene, 1,11-dodecadiene, 3,4-dimethyl-1,6-heptadiene, 4-ethyl-1,7-octadiene, and 3-ethyl-4-methyl-5-propyl-1,10-undecadiene, an amount of hydrogen, and optionally, an amount of other olefin monomer(s) excepting ethene under polymerization conditions comprising reaction temperature, pressure and time (t 2 ); wherein the polymerization conditions in the diene-free polymerization step yield substantially linear polymer and the polymerization conditions in the diene-incorporation step yield branched copolymer.