Metallocenes formation

Peripheral ferrocenyl-functionalized dendrimers are in fact one of the most common type of metallodendrimers synthesized today. Due to the chemical and thermal stabilities of this kind of metallocene, formation of the intended dendrimer-supported metallocene complex can be performed in a single reaction step the metallocene fragment is introduced onto the surface of a (commercially available) dendrimer as the final construction step [56,57]. 

Several titanium ani a-metallocenes have been prepared which incorporate chiral centers in the backbone as a way of influencing the stereoselectivity of ansa-metallocene formation. Chiral backbones that have been... 

Further simulations have been performed. In contrast to what was observed for bis-cyclopentadienyl metallocenes, mono-cyclopentadienyl systems did reveal a significant barrier to insertion [lOj. However, for all these systems it turned out that insertion only proceeded after the formation of a relatively stable agostic interaction, an observation that clearly supports the Brookhart-Green mechanism. 

Chemical Properties. Higher a-olefins are exceedingly reactive because their double bond provides the reactive site for catalytic activation as well as numerous radical and ionic reactions. These olefins also participate in additional reactions, such as oxidations, hydrogenation, double-bond isomerization, complex formation with transition-metal derivatives, polymerization, and copolymerization with other olefins in the presence of Ziegler-Natta, metallocene, and cationic catalysts. All olefins readily form peroxides by exposure to air. 

Metallocene Catalysts. Polymerization of cycloolefins with Kaminsky catalysts (combinations of metallocenes and methylaluminoxane) produces polymers with a completely different stmcture. The reactions proceeds via the double-bond opening in cycloolefins and the formation of C—C bonds between adjacent rings (31,32). If the metallocene complexes contain bridged and substituted cyclopentadienyl rings, such as ethylene(hisindenyl)zirconium dichloride, the polymers are stereoregular and have the i j -diisotactic stmcture. 

Catalyst Development. Traditional slurry polypropylene homopolymer processes suffered from formation of excessive amounts of low grade amorphous polymer and catalyst residues. Introduction of catalysts with up to 30-fold higher activity together with better temperature control have almost eliminated these problems (7). Although low reactor volume and available heat-transfer surfaces ultimately limit further productivity increases, these limitations are less restrictive with the introduction of more finely suspended metallocene catalysts and the emergence of industrial gas-phase fluid-bed polymerization processes. 

G. Formation of Metallocene Dicarbonyls with Other tj5-Bonded Rings 342... 

Elastomeric PP has also been synthesized using Ti, Zr and Hf ansa-metallocenes, (27). An alternative explanation for stereoblock formation was proposed, in which epimerization between isospecific and aspecific sites is rapid, affording predominantly atactic PP with short isotactic-rich sequences.103-105... 

Recently, a metallocene/MAO system has been used for the polymerization of non-conjugated dienes [204, 205]. The cyclopolymerization of 1,5-hexadiene has been catalyzed by Zieger-Natta catalyst systems, but with low activity and incomplete cyclization in the formation 5-membered rings [206]. The cyclopolymerization of 1,5-hexadiene in the presence of ZrMe2Cp2/MAO afforded a polymer (Mw = 2.7 x 107, Mw/Mn = 2.2) whose NMR indicated that almost complete cyclization had taken place. One of the olefin units of 1,5-hexadiene is initially inserted into an M-C bond and then cyclization proceeds by further... 

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. 

A special case of the chain back skip polymerization mechanism and therefore an entirely different polymerization behavior was observed for differently substituted asymmetric complexes (for example catalyst 3). Although asymmetric in structure, these catalysts follow the trend observed for C2-symmetric metallocenes [20], Chien et al. [23] reported a similar behavior for rac-[l-(9-r 5-fluorenyl)-2-(2,4,7-trimethyl-l-ri5-indenyl)ethane]zirconium dichloride and attributed this difference in the stereoerror formation to the fact that both sides of the catalyst are stereoselective thus isotactic polypropylene is obtained in the same manner as in the case of C2-symmetric metallocene catalysts. 

Borstar A catalytic process for polymerizing ethylene. Use of two reactors, a loop reactor and a gas-phase reactor, allows better control of molecular weight distribution. The loop reactor operates under super-critical conditions to avoid bubble formation. Either Ziegler-Natta or metallocene catalysts can be used. The first commercial unit was installed in Porvoo, Finland, in 1995. 

Similar to the reaction of zirconacyclopropene 1, titanacyclopropene 14 reacted with C02 to give titanacycle 15 (Scheme 5) I0,i0a-i0c j-[owever5 the reaction of Cp TiC /Mg with l,4-bis(trimethylsilyl)-l,3-butadiyne did not afford a titanacyclocumulene species, but yielded titanacyclopropene instead 16, which on reaction with C02 gave the titanacycle complex 17.7 In the case of the titanium half-metallocene complex 18, the five-membered titanacyclocumulene 19 was obtained but the insertion of C02 took place only at one of the two Ti-carbon bonds, leading to the formation of 20 (Scheme 5),11 which is in contrast with what was observed in the case of the Zr analog 3. The... 

The possible occurrence of a back-skip of the chain for catalytic systems based on C2-symmetric metallocenes would not change the chirality of the transition state for the monomer insertion and hence would not influence the corresponding polymer stereostructure. On the contrary, for catalytic systems based on Cs-symmetric metallocenes, this phenomenon would invert the chirality of the transition state for the monomer insertion, and in fact it has been invoked to rationalize typical stereochemical defects (isolated m diads) in syndiotactic polypropylenes.9 376 60 This mechanism of formation of stereoerrors has been confirmed by their increase in polymerization runs conducted with reduced monomer concentrations.65 In fact, it is reasonable to expect an increase in the frequency of chain back-skip by reducing the monomer concentration and hence the frequency of monomer insertion. 

Detailed studies in these laboratories have shed light on the mechanistic intricacies of asymmetric catalytic carbomagnesations, allowing for an understanding of the above trends in regio- and stereoselectivity [9]. Importantly, these mechanistic studies have indicated that there is no preference for the formation of either the anti or the syn (ebthi)Zr—alkene isomers (e. g. 8 anti vs. 8 syn) it is only that one metallocene—alkene... 

Collins and co-workers have performed studies in the area of catalytic enantioselective Diels—Alder reactions, in which ansa-metallocenes (107, Eq. 6.17) were utilized as chiral catalysts [100], The cycloadditions were typically efficient (-90% yield), but proceeded with modest stereoselectivities (26—52% ee). The group IV metal catalyst used in the asymmetric Diels—Alder reaction was the cationic zirconocene complex (ebthi)Zr(OtBu)-THF (106, Eq. 6.17). Treatment of the dimethylzirconocene [101] 106 with one equivalent of t-butanol, followed by protonation with one equivalent of HEt3N -BPh4, resulted in the formation of the requisite chiral cationic complex (107),... 

The marked difference in reaction efficiency that arises when different sources of metallocene are employed in the (ebthi)Zr-catalyzed hydrogenation is illustrated in Table 6.5. The mechanism by which MAO converts the zirconium(IV) salts to the active zirconium hydride species remains unclear [122]. However, it has been proposed that a chlorine atom may form an q2-bridge between aluminum and zirconium when the dichloride salt is used, thereby preventing formation of the active cationic metal center. 

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