Methanol and Other Protic Solvents

The factors that control the strictly alternating copolymer chain with no detectable errors (e. g., microstructures involving double insertion of ethene) have been the object of detailed studies since the discovery of the first Pd catalysts for the alternating alkene/CO copolymerisation [11]. Sen was the first to demonstrate that double carbonylation is thermodynamically unfavorable and to suggest that the higher binding affinity of Pd for CO relative to ethene inhibits multiple ethene insertions, even in the presence of very low concentrations of CO [12]. Therefore, once a palladium alkyl is formed, CO coordination ensures that the next monomer will be a CO molecule to generate the acyl complex. 

Replacing MeOH with water does not significantly affect the catalytic cycle of copolymerisation, which involves the usual steps of insertion of ethene into 

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