RESUMO
Nickel and palladium complexes bearing "sandwich" diimine ligands with perfluorinated aryl caps have been synthesized, characterized, and explored in ethylene polymerization reactions. The X-ray crystallographic analysis of the precatalysts 16 and 6b shows differences from their nonfluorinated analogues 17 and 19, with the perfluorinated aryl caps centered precisely over the nickel and palladium centers, which results in higher buried volumes of the metal centers relative to the nonfluorinated analogues. The sandwich diimine-palladium complexes 5a and 5b containing perfluorinated aryl caps polymerize ethylene in a controlled fashion with activities that are substantially increased compared with their nonfluorinated analogues. Migratory insertion rates in relevant methyl ethylene complexes agree with the activities exhibited in bulk polymerization experiments. DFT studies suggest that facility of ethylene rotation from its preferred orientation perpendicular to the Pd-alkyl bond into a parallel in-plane conformation contributes to the higher polymerization activity for 5b relative to 18a. For these palladium systems, polymer molecular weights can be controlled via hydrogen addition (hydrogenolysis), which is unusual for late-transition-metal-catalyzed olefin polymerizations with no catalyst deactivation occurring. Sandwich diimine-nickel complexes 6a and 6b with perfluorinated aryl caps show ethylene polymerization activities that are about half of those of classical tetraisopropyl-substituted catalyst 2 but again are more active than the analogous nonfluorinated sandwich complexes. Ethylene polymerizations exhibit living behavior, and branched ultrahigh-molecular-weight polyethylenes (UHMWPEs) with very low-molecular-weight distributions (less than 1.1) are obtained. The activated nickel catalysts are stable in the absence of monomer and show good long-term stability at 25 °C.
RESUMO
New neutral nickel and palladium ethylene polymerization catalysts have been prepared that incorporate an anionic (N,O) chelating ligand. Extensive axial shielding is provided by two 3,5-dichloroaryl moieties in a "sandwich" orientation. Such shielding results in an exceptionally slow rate of chain transfer relative to migratory insertion in the nickel catalyst, and thus highly controlled polymerization of ethylene is observed, leading to lightly branched ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene with Mn values up to 4.1 × 106 g/mol. The analogous palladium catalysts provide the means for a detailed mechanistic study of chain propagation in an electronically asymmetric neutral palladium catalyst. Both isomers of the methyl ethylene complex can be generated and observed at low temperatures allowing experimental elucidation of mechanistic details of chain propagation probed in other electronically asymmetric systems only through DFT studies or by examination of model studies. The barrier to migratory insertion in these complexes is ca. 19.2 kcal/mol. Investigation of the equilibration of the methyl ethylene isomers in the presence of excess ethylene showed the isomerization rate is dependent on ethylene concentration. This is the first direct proof that isomerization in these alkyl ethylene intermediates is catalyzed by ethylene. Furthermore, isomer equilibration is much faster than migratory insertion so that the barriers for insertion of individual isomers cannot be determined.