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Enhancing the Activity and Thermal Stability of Iron Precatalysts Using 2‐(1‐{2,6‐bis[bis(4‐fluorophenyl)methyl]‐4‐methylphenylimino}ethyl)‐6‐[1‐(arylimino)ethyl]pyridines
Author(s) -
Sun WenHua,
Zhao Weizhen,
Yu Jiangang,
Zhang Wenjuan,
Hao Xiang,
Redshaw Carl
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
macromolecular chemistry and physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1521-3935
pISSN - 1022-1352
DOI - 10.1002/macp.201200051
Subject(s) - thermal stability , polymerization , catalysis , chemistry , pyridine , ethylene , polymer chemistry , polyethylene , polymer , square pyramidal molecular geometry , crystal structure , single crystal , crystallography , medicinal chemistry , organic chemistry
A series of 2‐(1‐{2,6‐bis[bis(4‐fluorophenyl)methyl]‐4‐methylphenylimino}ethyl)‐6‐ [1‐(arylimino)ethyl]pyridine ligands is synthesized and fully characterized. The corresponding iron complexes are prepared and characterized by single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction for representative iron complexes, among other methods, revealing a pseudo square‐pyramidal geometry at the iron center. Upon activation with MMAO, all iron precatalysts exhibit high activity in ethylene polymerization, producing linear polyethylene. The observed activity is the highest reported for iron‐based precatalysts of this type. The polymerization parameters are shown to strongly affect the catalytic behavior, and both the activity and the polymer properties (i.e. $ \overline{M}_{\rm w}$ or $ \overline{M}_{\rm w}$ / $ \overline{M}_{\rm n}$ ) can be controlled.