Sulfur dioxide reactions with metal-ligand bonds

Palladium(II) complexes possessing bidentate ligands are known to efficiently catalyze the copolymerization of olefins with carbon monoxide to form polyketones.594-596 Sulfur dioxide is an attractive monomer for catalytic copolymerizations with olefins since S02, like CO, is known to undergo facile insertion reactions into a variety of transition metal-alkyl bonds. Indeed, Drent has patented alternating copolymerization of ethylene with S02 using various palladium(II) complexes.597 In 1998, Sen and coworkers also reported that [(dppp)PdMe(NCMe)]BF4 was an effective catalyst for the copolymerization of S02 with ethylene, propylene, and cyclopentene.598 There is a report of the insertion reactions of S02 into PdII-methyl bonds and the attempted spectroscopic detection of the copolymerization of ethylene and S02.599... 

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