Issue 23, 2019

Ethylene polymerization of nickel catalysts with α-diimine ligands: factors controlling the structure of active species and polymer properties

Abstract

α-Diimine and related complexes of late transition metals such as palladium and nickel have been attracting continuing interest as single-site catalysts of ethylene homopolymerization to branched polyolefins, having challenging mechanical properties. The state-of-the art catalysts demonstrate promising catalytic activities, and enhanced thermal stabilities, affording polyethylenes with a variable degree of branching and, in addition, are able to incorporate polar co-monomers into polyethylene structures. At the same time, fundamental understanding of the structure–reactivity relationships of such catalysts mostly remains at the phenomenological level, due to the lack of experimental data on the solution structures of intermediates that drive the polymerization process. In this perspective, we discuss recent advances of α-diimine nickel based catalysts of ethylene polymerization, focusing on the relationships between the catalyst structures on the one hand, and their thermal stabilities and properties of the resulting polyethylene, on the other hand. In addition, some intriguing novel mechanistic findings of these catalyst systems are presented.

Graphical abstract: Ethylene polymerization of nickel catalysts with α-diimine ligands: factors controlling the structure of active species and polymer properties

Article information

Article type
Perspective
Submitted
27 Mar 2019
Accepted
18 Apr 2019
First published
18 Apr 2019

Dalton Trans., 2019,48, 7974-7984

Ethylene polymerization of nickel catalysts with α-diimine ligands: factors controlling the structure of active species and polymer properties

I. E. Soshnikov, K. P. Bryliakov, A. A. Antonov, W. Sun and E. P. Talsi, Dalton Trans., 2019, 48, 7974 DOI: 10.1039/C9DT01297D

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