Zirconocene catalyst

The full ab-initio molecular dynamics simulation revealed the insertion of ethylene into the Zr-C bond, leading to propyl formation. The dynamics simulations showed that this first step in ethylene polymerisation is extremely fast. Figure 2 shows the distance between the carbon atoms in ethylene and between an ethylene carbon and the methyl carbon, from which it follows that the insertion time is only about 170 fs. This observation suggests the absence of any significant barrier of activation at this stage of the polymerisation process, and for this catalyst. The absence or very small value of a barrier for insertion of ethylene into a bis-cyclopentadienyl titanocene or zirconocene has also been confirmed by static quantum simulations reported independently... 

Fig. 2. Time-evolution of the methyl/ethyl C-C distances for both the zirconocene and the corresponding titanocene catalyst. The two curves starting at around 3.2 A represent the distance between the methyl carbon atom and the nearest-by ethylene carbon atom in the zirconocene-ethylene and the titanocene-ethylene complex, respectively. The two curves starting at around 1.35 A reflect the ethylene internal C-C bond lengths in the two complexes.

Stable transition-metal complexes may act as homogenous catalysts in alkene polymerization. The mechanism of so-called Ziegler-Natta catalysis involves a cationic metallocene (typically zirconocene) alkyl complex. An alkene coordinates to the complex and then inserts into the metal alkyl bond. This leads to a new metallocei e in which the polymer is extended by two carbons, i.e. 

Zirconocene (ligand) Activity (kg PP/g catalyst/h) Weight average molecular weight (kg/mol) Melting point (°C)... 

Zirconocene dichloride 121 derived from (l-phenylethyl)cyclopentadienyl ligand is formed as a mixture of diastereomers from which the racemic form can be isolated by fractional crystallization. This complex was studied by X-ray diffraction methods and revealed a virtually chiral C2-symmetrical conformation in which the chiral ring-substituents are arranged in a synclinal position relative to the five-membered ring. It was proposed that this conformation is preserved in solution. Using 121 as catalyst the influence of double stereodifferentiation during isospecific polymerization of propylene (Eq. 32) was demonstrated for the first time [142],... 

Negishi E, Tan Z (2005) Diastereoselective, Enantioselective, and Regioselective Carbo-alumination Reactions Catalyzed by Zirconocene Derivatives. 8 139-176 Netherton M, Fu GC (2005)Pa]ladium-catalyzed Cross-Coupling Reactions of Unactivated Alkyl Electrophiles with Organometallic Compounds. 14 85-108 Nicolaou KC, King NP, He Y (1998) Ring-Closing Metathesis in the Synthesis of EpothUones and Polyether Natmal Products. 1 73-104 Nishiyama H (2004) Cyclopropanation with Ruthenium Catalysts. 11 81-92 Noels A, Demonceau A, Delaude L (2004) Ruthenium Promoted Catalysed Radical Processes toward Fine Chemistry. 11 155-171... 

The bis-zirconocene complex CpjClZrCHjCHjZrCpjCl has been isolated upon double hydrozirconation of acetylene with 1 [102]. Recently, the preparation of a heterogeneous bis-zirconocene catalyst was succesfully achieved from zirconocene dichloride complexes containing alkenyl or alkynyl substituents [224]. 

An enantioselective variant of the diene cydization reaction has been developed by application of chiral zirconocene derivatives, such as Brintzinger s catalyst (12) [10]. Mori and co-workers demonstrated that substituted dial-lylbenzylamine 25 could be cyclized to pyrrolidines 26 and 27 in a 2 1 ratio using chiral complex 12 in up to 79% yield with up to 95% ee (Eq. 4) [ 17,18]. This reaction was similarly applied to 2-substituted 1,6-dienes, which provided the analogous cyclopentane derivatives in up to 99% ee with similar diastereoselectivities [19]. When cyclic, internal olefins were used, spirocyclic compounds were isolated. The enantioselection in these reactions is thought to derive from either the ate or the transmetallation step. The stereoselectivity of this reaction has been extended to the selective reaction of enantiotopic olefin compounds to form bicyclic products such as 28, in 24% yield and 59% ee after deprotection (Eq. 5) [20]. 

The zirconocene catalysts described above are very oxophilic, which provides several synthetically useful transformations. Oxygen substitution at the al-lylic or homoallylic position of an olefin substrate allows for excellent regio-and diastereocontrol in the ethyl magnesiation reactions of a-olefins and dienes [21]. When 29 is substituted with a hydroxyl group (29a), syn 30a is favored over anti in a 95 5 ratio, while substitution with OCH3 (29b) reversed the diastereoselectivity to 11 89 (Eq. 6). Use of THF in place of diethyl ether as the reaction solvent for the reaction of 29a lowered the overall diastereo-... 

Replacement of one of the Cp groups in the titanocene or zirconocene-based catalysts by an alkyl group destroys the... 

Titanocene catalysts do not catalyze the hydrosilation of most internal olefins, although they can attach active olefins such as styrene, or norbornene to the growing polymer chain ends. The zirconocene-based catalysts, on the other hand, can be powerful hydrosilation catalysts and the remarkable copolymer synthesis shown in Equation 3 can be easily achieved under mild conditions (V7). 

The compounds 2 and 3, have all been isolated from reactions of phenylsilane with either dimethyltitanocene (1 2) or dimethyl-zirconocene (r ). All of the evidence points to the fact that these compounds are probably resting species and are not involved in the catalytic cycle. They do nevertheless give some indication of the complex series of reactions that transform the dimethyl-metallocene to active catalyst. 

It has since been shown that if less coordinating anions are used, then cationic zirconocene alkyls may serve as highly active single-component catalysts. Hence, treatment of Cp2ZrMe2 with... 

The isotacticities and activities achieved with nonbridged metallocene catalyst precursors were low. Partially isotactic polypropylene has been obtained by using a catalyst system of unbridged (non-ansa type) metallocenes at low temperatures [65]. A chiral zirconocene complex such as rac-ZrCl2(C5H4 CHMePh)2 (125) is the catalyst component for the isospecific polymerization of propylene (mmmm 0.60, 35% of type 1 and 65% of type 2 in Scheme Y) [161]. More bulky metallocene such as bis(l-methylfluorenyl)zirconium dichloride (126) together with MAO polymerized propylene to isotactic polypropylene in a temperature range between 40 and 70°C [162]. 

When a chiral ansa-type zirconocene/MAO system was used as the catalyst precursor for polymerization of 1,5-hexadiene, an main-chain optically active polymer (68% trans rings) was obtained84-86. The enantioselectivity for this cyclopolymerization can be explained by the fact that the same prochiral face of the olefins was selected by the chiral zirconium center (Eq. 12) [209-211]. Asymmetric hydrogenation, as well as C-C bond formation catalyzed by chiral ansa-metallocene 144, has recently been developed to achieve high enantioselectivity88-90. This parallels to the high stereoselectivity in the polymerization. 

Similar polymerization of MMA using enolate-zirconocene catalysts has also been found [223]. The mechanism of this catalytic reaction is related to the process described in Scheme XI because the cationic enolate complex is isolobal to that of the corresponding lanthanide complex. Recently, similar cationic... 

---