Reaction alkene polymerization

The same high reactivity of radicals that makes possible the alkene polymerization we saw in the previous section also makes it difficult to carry out controlled radical reactions on complex molecules. As a result, there are severe limitations on the usefulness of radical addition reactions in the laboratory. Tn contrast to an electrophilic addition, where reaction occurs once and the reactive cation intermediate is rapidly quenched in the presence of a nucleophile, the reactive intermediate in a radical reaction is not usually quenched, so it reacts again and again in a largely uncontrollable wav. 

As shown in Table 4.38, three major reaction pathways are available to hypova-lent metals in the presence of an alkene (A) and (C) dative and synergistic coordination (B) carbocation formation and (D) and (E) metallacyclic and migratory insertions. The latter types are of particular importance in metal-catalyzed alkene polymerizations and will be given primary attention in the discussion that follows. 

The ability of transition-metal complexes to activate substrates such as alkenes and dihydrogen with respect to low-barrier bond rearrangements underlies a large number of important catalytic transformations, such as hydrogenation and hydroformy-lation of alkenes. However, activation alone is insufficient if it is indiscriminate. In this section we examine a particularly important class of alkene-polymerization catalysts that exhibit exquisite control of reaction stereoselectivity and regioselec-tivity as well as extraordinary catalytic power, the foundation for modern industries based on inexpensive tailored polymers. 

The chain-carrying catalytic species of alkene-polymerization reactions is commonly a tri-coordinate group 4 transition-metal cation of the general form L2M+P , where P is the polyalkene chain. A family of commercially important examples is based on the complex titanium ion57... 

As a simple computational model for the catalysis of alkene polymerization, let us consider some aspects of the general chain-propagation reaction... 

In summary, transifion-metal-catalyzed alkene-polymerization reactions highlight the metal-induced electrophilic activation of C—C n bonds to form carbo-cation-like alkene complexes. Considerations involving substituent pi-donor or pi-acceptor strength (i.e., tendency toward carbocation formation) will be useful in similarly rationalizing polymerization reactions (4.105) for more general alkenes. 

The term carbometallation was most probably coined only about a quarter of a century ago.1 However, the history of those reactions that can be classified as carbometallation reactions is much older. If one includes not only the Ziegler-Natta-type organometallic alkene polymerization reactions2 but also various types of organometallic conjugate addition reactions,3 carbometallation collectively is easily more than a century old. In its broadest definition, carbometallation may be defined as a process of addition of a carbon-metal bond to a carbon-carbon multiple bond. As such, it may represent either a starting material-product relationship irrespective of mechanistic details or an actual mechanistic microstep of carbon-metal bond addition to a carbon-carbon metal multiple bond irrespective of the structure of the product eventually formed. 

Intermediates corresponding to the coordination step are considered as sufficiently close to transition states of the insertion reaction, and hence as suitable preinsertion intermediates, only if the insertion can occur through a motion of the nuclei that is near to the least—principle of least nuclear motion.13,30,31 For instance, for alkene polymerizations preinsertion intermediates correspond to geometries with (a) a double bond of the olefin nearly parallel to the metal growing chain bond and (b) the first C-C bond of the chain nearly perpendicular to the plane defined by the double bond of the monomer and by the metal atom (50° < Gi < 130°, rather than 0i 180° see below). 

Inspired by the ability of cationic ansa-zirconocene complexes to effect stereocontrolled alkene polymerization reactions, Jordan has recently reported the stereoselective insertion of simple alkenes into both the (ebi)Zr(r 2 -pyrid-2 -yl) and (ebthi) Z r (r 2 -pyr id - 2 -yl) systems [113]. As shown in Scheme 6.36, treatment of rac-(ebi)ZrMe2 114 with nBu3NH+BPh4 in the presence of 2-picoline affords the (ebi)Zr(q2-pyrid-2-yl) complex 115 (the derived B(C6F5) derivatives may also be prepared and are in fact reported to be more convenient to use). 

Cationic zirconocenes serve as useful reagents in such diverse fields as alkene polymerization, carbohydrate chemistry, asymmetric catalysis, and so on. Reagents that were originally developed for polymerization reactions (MAO, ansa-metallocenes, non-nucleophi-lic borate counterions) have now found use in organic synthesis and are being employed for carbometalation reactions, hydrogenation, and Diels—Alder catalysis. 

To date, the most frequently used ligand for combinatorial approaches to catalyst development have been imine-type ligands. From a synthetic point of view this is logical, since imines are readily accessible from the reaction of aldehydes with primary or secondary amines. Since there are large numbers of aldehydes and amines that are commercially available the synthesis of a variety of imine ligands with different electronic and steric properties is easily achieved. Additionally, catalysts based on imine ligands are useful in a number of different catalytic processes. Libraries of imine ligands have been used in catalysts of the Strecker reaction, the aza-Diels-Alder reaction, diethylzinc addition, epoxidation, carbene insertions, and alkene polymerizations. 

However, one of the most common mechanisms is undoubtedly proton transfer but whereas in alkene polymerizations this reaction leaves a terminal double bond, in arylene polymerizations these are generally not found. Instead the terminal group is usually a substituted indane formed by an internal Friedel-Crafts alkylation [8, 21, 23], e.g., for a-methyl styrene ... 

The paper devoted to the phosphetan synthesis26 describes optimum conditions for the cyclization process leading to (22), and explains the effects of other conditions in terms of competing reactions, such as alkene polymerization or addition of hydrogen chloride. Assignment of structure (23) to the product from hept-l-ene (24)... 

Proton/deuterium isotope effects on reaction rates are useful mechanistic probes. In the zirconocene-catalyzed alkene polymerization, the observed values of k .iH/feo(.2H determined by NMR fall in the range of 1.2-1.3 and support a transition state in which there is an a-agostic interaction (see 88) [132]. 

Landis and coworkers [140] have developed an active-site counting method based on H-labelling, for the metallocene-catalyzed alkene polymerization. After quenching the reaction by addition of methanol, the polymer is analyzed by NMR, which allows the quantification of Zr-alkyl sites. A typical NMR of quenched polymer is shown in Scheme 1.7 (label is found at terminal positions only). This technique has been applied to the polymerization of 1-hexene catalyzed by [Zr(rac-C2H4(l-indenyl)2)Me][MeB(QF5)3], 91. As shown in Scheme 1.7, there are two possible approaches ... 

This chapter does not intend to provide a complete collection of newly synthesized organometallic or coordination complexes for alkene polymerization, but rather aims to review a cross-section of transition metal catalysts from the viewpoint of polymers and polymerization reactions. We focus particularly on polymers that are difficult or virtually impossible to prepare using conventional catalysts. In this light, we narrow our attention to well-defined molecular catalysts, including a study of progress in the understanding of active species, reactive intermediates, and reaction mechanisms that are indispensable for the synthesis of such polymers. 

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