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Transition Metal‐Catalyzed and MAO‐Assisted Olefin Polymerization. Cyclic Isomers of Sinn’s Dimer Are Excellent Ligands in Iron Complexes and Great Methylating Reagents
Catalysts
  • Kaidi Yang
  • Rainer Glaser, Missouri University of Science and Technology
Abstract

Methylaluminoxane (MAO) is the most commonly used co‐catalyst for transition metalcatalyzed olefin polymerization, but the structures of MAO species and their catalytic functions remain topics of intensive study. We are interested in MAO‐assisted polymerization with catalysts L(R2)FeCl2 (L = tridentate pyridine‐2,6‐diyldimethanimine; imine‐R = Me, Ph). It is our hypothesis that the MAO species is not merely enabling Fe−Me bond formation but functions as an integral part of the active catalyst, a MAO adduct of the Fe‐precatalyst [L(R2)FeCl]+. In this paper, we explored the possible structures of acyclic and cyclic MAO species and their complexation with pre‐catalysts [L(R2)FeCl]+ using quantum chemical approaches (MP2 and DFT). We report absolute and relative oxophilicities associated with the Fe←O(MAO) adduct formation and provide compelling evidence that oxygen of an acyclic MAO species (i.e., O(AlMe2)2, 4) cannot compete with the O‐donor in cyclic MAO species (i.e., (MeAlO)2, 7; MeAl(OAlMe2)2, cyclic 5). Significantly, our work demonstrates that intramolecular O→Al dative bonding results in cyclic isomers of MAO species (i.e., cyclic 5) with high oxophilicities. The stabilities of the [L(R2)FeClax(MAO)eq]+ species demonstrate that 5 provides for the ligating benefits of the cyclic MAO species 4 without the thermodynamically costly elimination of TMA. Mechanistic implications are discussed for the involvement of such Fe−O−Al bridged catalyst in olefin polymerization.

Department(s)
Chemistry
Comments

This work was supported by the Missouri University of Science and Technology, by a grant from the Petroleum Research Fund of the American Chemical Society (#53415-ND4), and, in part, by a grant from the National Science Foundation #1665487.

Keywords and Phrases
  • Iron Pre‐catalyst,
  • Methylaluminoxane (MAO),
  • Molecular Modeling,
  • Olefin Polymerization,
  • Oxophilicity,
  • Pre‐catalyst MAO Adduct
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2022 The Authors, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
Publication Date
3-1-2022
Publication Date
01 Mar 2022
Disciplines
Citation Information
Kaidi Yang and Rainer Glaser. "Transition Metal‐Catalyzed and MAO‐Assisted Olefin Polymerization. Cyclic Isomers of Sinn’s Dimer Are Excellent Ligands in Iron Complexes and Great Methylating Reagents" Catalysts Vol. 12 Iss. 3 (2022) ISSN: 2073-4344
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/rainer-glaser/162/