title: Gas-phase and solution-phase polymerization of epoxides by Cr(salen) complexes: evidence for a dinuclear cationic mechanism.
abstract: The gas-phase reactions of a series of mass-selected mononuclear and dinuclear Cr(salen) complexes with propylene oxide suggest that the enhanced reactivity of the dinuclear complexes in gas-phase and in solution may derive from a dicationic mechanism in which the alkoxide chain is mu(2)-coordinated to two Lewis acidic metal centers. The double coordination is proposed to suppress backbiting, and hence chain-transfer in the gas-phase homopolymerization of epoxides.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorium fur Organische Chemie, HCI G209/ETH-Zurich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 10, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Schön
authors.forename: Xiangyang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Zhiping
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Malcolm H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Chisholm
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chen