Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.126, No.38, 12023-12032, 2004
Living copolymerization of ethylene with norbornene catalyzed by bis(pyrrolide-imine) titanium complexes with MAO
Bis(pyrrolide-imine) Ti complexes in conjunction with methylalumoxane (MAO) were found to work as efficient catalysts for the copolymerization of ethylene and norbornene to afford unique copolymers via an addition-type polymerization mechanism. The catalysts exhibited very high norbornene incorporation, superior to that obtained with Me2Si(Me4CP)(N-tert-Bu)TiCl2 (CGC). The sterically open and highly electrophilic nature of the catalysts is probably responsible for the excellent norbornene incorporation. The catalysts displayed a marked tendency to produce alternating copolymers, which have stereoirregular structures despite the C-2 symmetric nature of the catalysts. The norbomene/ethylene molar ratio in the polymerization medium had a profound influence on the molecular weight distribution of the resulting copolymer. At norbomene/ethylene ratios larger than ca. 1, the catalysts mediated room-temperature living copolymerization of ethylene and norbornene to form high molecular weight monodisperse copolymers (M-n > 500 000, M-w/M-n < 1.20).C-13 NMR spectroscopic analysis of a copolymer, produced under conditions that gave low molecular weight, demonstrated that the copolymerization is initiated by norbornene insertion and that the catalyst mostly exists as a norbornene-last-inserted species under living conditions. Polymerization behavior coupled with DFT calculations suggested that the highly controlled living polymerization stems from the fact that the catalysts possess high affinity and high incorporation ability for norbornene as well as the characteristics of a living ethylene polymerization though under limited conditions (M-n 225 000, M-w/M-n 1.15, 10-s polymerization, 25degreesC). With the catalyst, unique block copolymers [i.e., poly(ethylene-co-norbornene)(1)-b-poly(ethylene-co-norbornene)(2), PE-b-poly(ethylene-co-norbornene)] were successfully synthesized from ethylene and norbomene. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) indicated that the PE-b-poly(ethylene-co-norbornene) possesses high potential as a new material consisting of crystalline and amorphous segments which are chemically linked.