title: A general one-pot synthesis for elusive 2-substituted indenes: does bis[2-(tert-butyl)indenyl]zirconium(IV) dichloride/MAO polymerise ethene?
abstract: Among the 2-substituted indenes, 2-trifluoroindene and 2-tert-butylindene are poorly or incompletely described in the open literature. We herein describe an efficient one-pot synthesis of these compounds as a variation of the Perkin reaction which allows us to refute an earlier claim that bis(2-tert-butylindenyl)zirconium(IV) dichloride (2a) will not polymerise ethene. In fact, 2a/MAO polymerises ethene to extremely high molecular weights. Extensive DFT calculations on the polymerisation mechanism revealed an unprecedented suppression of the otherwise predominant chain termination by beta-hydride transfer due to steric congestion of the active site.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hydrcarbon Process Chemistry, SINTEF Materials and Chemistry, P.O. Boks 124 Blindern, N-0314 Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Andreas C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Möller
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Blom
authors.forename: Richard H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Heyn
authors.forename: Ole
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Swang
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kopf
authors.forename: Tanja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Seraidaris