title: Novel vanadium(III) complexes with bidentate N,N-chelating iminopyrrolide ligands: synthesis, characterization and catalytic behaviour of ethylene polymerization and copolymerization with 10-undecen-1-ol.
abstract: A series of novel vanadium(III) complexes bearing iminopyrrolide chelating ligands [2-(RN=CH)C4H3N]V(THF)2Cl2 (2a: R = cyclohexyl; 2b: R = Ph; 2c: R = 2,6-iPr2C6H3; 2d: R = p-CF3C6H4; 2e: R = C6F5) have been synthesized and characterized. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction revealed that complexes 2a, 2c and 2e adopt an octahedral geometry around the vanadium center. In the presence of Et2AlCl as a co-catalyst, these complexes displayed high catalytic activities up to 48.6 kg PE mmol(V)(-1) h(-1) bar(-1) for ethylene polymerization, and produced high molecular weight polymers. 2a-e/Et2AlCl catalytic systems were tolerant to elevated temperature (70 degrees C) and yielded unimodal polyethylenes, indicating the single site behaviour of these catalysts. By pre-treating with equimolar amounts of alkylaluminums, functional alpha-olefin 10-undecen-1-ol can be efficiently incorporated into polyethylene chains. 10-Undecen-1-ol incorporation can easily reach 15.8 mol% under the mild conditions. When compared with VCl3(THF)3 or rac-Et[Ind]2ZrCl2, these vanadium(III) complexes exhibited higher activities towards the copolymerization, and can incorporate more 10-undecen-1-ol into polymer chains under the similar conditions.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, China.
authors.forename: Bao-Chang
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Ji-Qian
authors.initials: JQ
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Ning-Hai
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Yue-Sheng
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Li