A practical ethylene polymerization for vinyl-polyethylenes: synthesis, characterization and catalytic behavior of α,α′-bisimino-2,3:5,6-bis(pentamethylene)pyridyliron chlorides†
Abstract
A series of α,α′-bis(arylimino)-2,3:5,6-bis(pentamethylene)pyridyliron chlorides was synthesized in a one-pot reaction and characterized by FT-IR and elemental analysis as well as X-ray crystallography for one representative iron complex, where the Fe center adopts a distorted square pyramidal geometry with three coordinating nitrogen and two chlorine atoms. The iron precatalysts, upon treatment with either methylaluminoxane (MAO) or modified methylaluminoxane (MMAO), exhibit high activities in the range of 107 g of PE per mol of Fe per h toward ethylene polymerization, yielding highly linear and, more importantly, vinyl-polyethylenes. The correlation between the structural features of iron complexes and their catalytic activities was also investigated.