Gas phase polymerization of ethylene with supported α-diimine Nickel(II) catalysts

An efficient synthetic strategy for new 2,5- and 2,6-substituted unbridged and 1,4-dithiane bridged ligands is presented. The reaction of the latter compounds with Ni(acac)2 and trityl tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)borate gave the corresponding Ni(II) complexes in high yields. The structure of one of these complexes was determined, by X-ray analysis. These complexes were supported on silica without a chemical tether and were used as catalysts for ethylene polymerization reactions in the gas phase. Furthermore, ethylene was polymerized with the unsupported 2, 5-complexes in homogeneous solution for comparison. The influence of the ligand structure, hydrogen and temperature on the polymerization performance was investigated. The supported catalysts showed moderate to high activities and produced polyethylenes ranging from HDPE to LLDPE, without further addition of an 1 -olefin comonomer. In contrast to 2,6complexes, which generate high molecular weight polyethylene, the 2,5-compounds afford materials of lower molecular weight comprising terminal and internal double bonds. In addition, video microscopy experiments allowed to investigate the growth of single polyethylene particles. Electron microscopy was applied to show that their morphology is a replicate of the starting catalyst grains.