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A Phenol-containing α-Diimine Ligand for Nickel- and Palladium-Catalyzed Ethylene Polymerization

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Abstract

A phenol-containing dibenzhydryl-based α-diimine ligand bearing hydroxy group on para-position of aniline moiety was designed, synthesized, and investigated in Ni- and Pd-catalyzed ethylene polymerization. The Ni complex bearing hydroxy groups resulted in not only high polyethylene molecular weight (Mn up to 1.5 × 106), but also significantly increased melting temperature (Tm up to 123 °C) and greatly decreased branching density (33/1000C) versus the Ni catalyst bearing OMe group on para-position of aniline moiety. This is consistent with the hypothesis that the deprotonation of the phenol moiety generated a phenoxide bearing strong electrondonating O− substituent by methylaluminoxane (MAO) cocatalyst. The Pd complexes bearing hydroxy groups exhibited similar catalytic properties to those of the Pd catalyst bearing OMe groups did.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21690071).

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  1. Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Chen Tan, Wen-Min Pang & Chang-Le Chen

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  1. Chen Tan
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Correspondence to Chang-Le Chen.

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Invited article for special issue of “The 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Prof. Shi-Lin Yang”

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Tan, C., Pang, WM. & Chen, CL. A Phenol-containing α-Diimine Ligand for Nickel- and Palladium-Catalyzed Ethylene Polymerization. Chin J Polym Sci 37, 974–980 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-019-2232-1

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