On-Demand CO Delivery and Incorporation from Solid Surrogate Enable Compatible Slurry-Phase Ethylene Polymerization

The incorporation of carbon monoxide (CO) into the polyethylene backbone represents a promising strategy to enhance its degradability. However, conventional nickel-catalyzed approaches often require high temperatures (>100 °C), which has caused the polymerization process to deviate from industrially preferred slurry-phase conditions. Here, we introduce benzene-1,3,5-triyl triformate (TFBen) as a robust and nonreactive CO solid surrogate, and the corresponding ethylene polymerization is achieved efficiently under mild conditions (e.g., 80 °C). Notably, on-demand delivery of CO from solid TFBen enables the uniform and isolated incorporation of carbonyl groups into high-density polyethylene. This study offers a facile and practical route to integrate CO into polyethylene without modifying the existing slurry polymerization process.