Late-metal catalyst systems

Mention has already been made in this chapter of metallocene-catalysed polyethylene (see also Chapter 2). Such metallocene catalysts are transition metal compounds, usually zirconium or titanium. Incorporated into a cyclopentadiene-based structure. During the late 1990s several systems were developed where the new catalysts could be employed in existing polymerisation processes for producing LLDPE-type polymers. These include high pressure autoclave and... 

Recently, a deeper understanding of the precise nature of metal-carbon bonding was achieved, enabling specific polymerization catalyst systems to be designed on a practical level. The metal-carbon bond of early transition metals is partially ionic, while that of late transition metal is generally covalent. The degree of ionicity is delicately dependent on the identity of metal, formal oxidation states and auxiliary ligands. 

The branched polymers produced by the Ni(II) and Pd(II) a-diimine catalysts shown in Fig. 3 set them apart from the common early transition metal systems. The Pd catalysts, for example, are able to afford hyperbranched polymer from a feedstock of pure ethylene, a monomer which, on its own, offers no predisposition toward branch formation. Polymer branches result from metal migration along the chain due to the facile nature of late metals to perform [3-hydride elimination and reinsertion reactions. This process is similar to the early mechanism proposed by Fink briefly mentioned above [18], and is discussed in more detail below. The chain walking mechanism obviously has dramatic effects on the microstructure, or topology, of the polymer. Since P-hydride elimination is less favored in the Ni(II) catalysts compared to the Pd(II) catalysts, the former system affords polymer with a low to moderate density of short-chain branches, mostly methyl groups. 

Brookhart and coworkers [1] have recently developed Ni(II) and Pd(II) bis-imine based catalysts of the type (ArN=C(R)-C(R)=NAr)M-CH3+ (la of Figure 1) that are promising alternatives to both Ziegler-Natta systems and metallocene catalysts for olefin polymerization. Traditionally, such late metal catalysts are found to produce dimers or extremely low molecular weight oligomers due to the favorability of the P-elimination chain termination process [2],... 

Late transition-metal hydroamination is the method of choice for the atom economical and functional group-tolerant construction of C—N bonds, and in this context Ir plays a central role (indeed, homogenous transition-metal-catalyzed OHA was discovered with Rh and Ir). However, there is a strong need for the development of better OHA catalyst systems that are applicable to a wider range of substrates and conditions. The characteristics of current Ir based catalyst systems to function via N—H bond activation, though, is a potential handicap to achieve this goal, since it implies highly reactive Ir intermediates that are prone... 

The key factors that influence the ease of the reductive elimination by a late transition metal complex are listed in Figure 1-10. The understanding of their effect on the metal centre might help to design more active catalyst systems. The use of bulky ligands, for example might increase the crowdedness around the metal centre and facilitate reductive elimination,... 

Some gold catalyst species proved to be better than platinum in the intramolecular reactions of unactivated alkenes, as studied by Widenhoefer et al. [61-63]. Gold was allowed to work under mild conditions and the scope of the reaction was also broader than with other late-transition-metal catalyst systems, leading to the formation of five-and six-membered rings. 

Even though Ziegler catalysts have been known for almost half a century, rare earth metals (Ln), particularly neodymium (Nd)-based Ziegler catalyst systems, only came into the focus of industrial and academic research well after the large scale application of titanium, cobalt and nickel catalyst systems. As a direct consequence of the late recognition of the technological potential of rare earth metal Ziegler catalysts, these systems have attracted much attention. 

TEES [Thermochemical Environmental Energy System] A catalytic process for destroying organic wastes in aqueous systems by thermochemical gasification. High temperatures and pressures are used. The catalyst is nickel metal supported on sodium carbonate the products are mostly methane, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen. Developed by Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory, Richland, WA, in the late 1980s and now licensed by Onsite Offsite, Inc. 

On the other hand, late transition metal-based catalyst systems that had been identified by the early 1990s were characterized by low activity but high functional group tolerance, especially toward water and other protic solvents. These features led to reinvestigations of ruthenium systems and, ultimately, to the preparation of the first well-defined, ruthenium-carbene olefin metathesis catalyst (PPh3)2(Cl)2Ru=CHCH=Ph2 (Ru-1) in 1992 [5]. 

Triggered by the developments in late transition metal catalyzed polymerization, new catalyst systems were described very recently for the oligomerization of ethene. Nickel and palladium complexes based on a-diimine ligands 13 and imi-nophosphines 14 were reported to be very active and selective oligomerization catalysts [57, 58], Activation of the Ni(II) diimine halides with a large excess of MAO (210 equiv.) leads to oligomerization catalysts with activities of between... 

Early metal-metallocene-alkene polymerization catalysts permit the synthesis of highly isotactic polypropylene . They rely on controlling the stereochemistry of alkene insertion by the use of chiral C2 symmetric metallocenes . Late metal systems for alkene polymerization , and copolymerization of alkenes and CO , have also been developed. 

In this reaction, one polymer chain forms per molecule of the organic halide (initiator), while the metal complex serves as a catalyst or as an activator, which catalytically activates, or homolytically cleaves, the carbon—halogen terminal. Therefore, the initiating systems for the metal-catalyzed living radical polymerization consist of an initiator and a metal catalyst. The effective metal complexes include various late transition metals such as ruthenium, copper, iron, nickel, etc., while the initiators are haloesters, (haloalkyl)benzenes, sulfonyl halides, etc. (see below). They can control the polymerizations of various monomers including methacrylates, acrylates, styrenes, etc., most of which are radically polymerizable conjugated monomers. More detailed discussion will be found in the following sections of this paper for the scope and criteria of these components (initiators, metal catalysts, monomers, etc.). 

Earher mechanistic studies by Milstein on a achiral Ir catalyst system indicated that the iridium catalyzed norbornene hydroamination involves amine activation as a key step in the catalytic cycle [27] rather than alkene activation, which is observed for most other late transition metal catalyzed hydroamination reactions [28]. Thus, the iridium catalyzed hydroamination of norbornene with aniline is initiated by an oxidative addition of aniline to the metal center, followed by insertion of the strained olefin into the iridium amido bond (Scheme 11.4). Subsequent reductive elimina tion completes the catalytic cycle and gives the hydroamination product 11. Unfor tunately, this catalyst system seems to be limited to highly strained olefins. 

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