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catalysts based on chromium have been reported only once
before.[10] This desirable behavior is ascribed to two character-
istics of the [RP(NtBu)2AlX2]À monoanion: 1) it has the
potential to transfer an alkyl group to chromium (either from
P or from the Al residue), which evidently affords robust
chromium alkyl species, and 2) it establishes a structure in
which the Lewis acidity of the aluminum residue enhances the
positive charge on chromium. Complexes 2 and 3 can
reasonably be regarded as representative of the fate of 1 in
the early stage of its activation. Formation of such species,
which possibly survive in small amounts in the presence of the
large excess of activators, might be responsible for the
presence of the polymer commonly observed during oligo-
merization. The intriguing selective trimerization obtained on
activation of 1 with AliBu3 remains unexplained at this stage
and it is the target of current investigation.
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Figure 1. Selected bond lengths [] and angles [8] for 2: Cr1 N1
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2.135(3), Cr1 N3 2.136(3), Cr1 C14 2.344(5), Cr1 P2 2.3505(12), N1
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Al2 1.940(3), N2 Al2 1.839(3), Al2 C14 2.025(5), P1 N1 1.736(3),
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P1 N2 1.667(3), Al1 P1 2.5549(15), Al3 N3 1.993(3), Al3 N4
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1.876(4), P2 N3 1.710(3), P2 N4 1.648(4); N1-Cr1-N3 167.32(12),
N1-Cr1-C14 89.40(14), N3-Cr1-C14 103.24(14), N1-Cr1-P2 122.95(9),
N3-Cr1-P2 44.50(9), C14-Cr1-P2 145.67(12), Al2-C14-Cr1 78.08(16).
À
Selected bond lengths [] and angles [8] for 3: Cr1 N2 2.1256(12),
Cr1 N1 2.1305(13), Cr1 Cl3 2.4041(5), Cr1 Cl2 2.4063(5), Al3 Cl3
2.2764(7), Al3 Cl2 2.2765(7), Al2 N1 1.9209(13), Al2 N2 1.9283(13),
Al2 C13 1.9370(16), P1 N1 1.7651(14), P1 N2 1.7730(14); N2-Cr1-
N1 65.26(5), N2-Cr1-Cl3 104.24(4), N1-Cr1-Cl3 169.42(4), N2-Cr1-Cl2
169.26(4), N1-Cr1-Cl2 104.67(4), Cl3-Cr1-Cl2 85.713(17), Cl3-Al3-Cl2
91.88(2), N1-Al2-N2 73.20(6), N1-P1-N2 80.88(6).
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Experimental Section
Samples were tested in a 200-mL high-pressure Büchi reactor
containing a heating/cooling jacket. A preweighed amount of catalyst
was dissolved in 10 mL of toluene under N2 and injected into the
preheated reactor already charged with cocatalyst and toluene (total
volume 100 mL). Solutions were heated with a thermostatic bath and
charged with ethylene, maintaining the pressure throughout the run.
Polymerizations were quenched by addition of EtOH and HCl. The
resulting polymer was isolated by filtration, sonicated with an
acidified ethanol solution, rinsed, and thoroughly dried prior to
mass determination. Molecular weight and molecular-weight distri-
butions of the polymers were determined by means of gel permeation
chromatography on a PL-GPC210 equipped with refractive-index and
viscosity detectors and a 3 PLgel 10 mm MIXED-B column set at
1358C with 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene as solvent. The molecular weight
of PE was referenced to polystyrene (Mw = 65500, PDI = 1.02)
standards. All reactions were carried out under a dry nitrogen
atmosphere. Solvents were dried by using an aluminum oxide solvent
purification system. Samples for magnetic susceptibility were pre-
weighed inside a drybox equipped with an analytical balance and
measured on a Johnson Matthey magnetic susceptibility balance.
Data for X-ray crystal structure determination were collected with a
Bruker diffractometer equipped with a 1K Smart CCD area detector.
[CrCl2(thf)2] was prepared according to standard procedures. The
ligand cis-{tBu(H)NP[(m-N)tBu]2PN(H)tBu} was prepared according
to a literature procedure.[6b] The reagents iBu2AlCl (Aldrich), AlMe3
(Aldrich), (iBu2Al)2(m-O), and MAO (Chemtura and Aldrich) were
used as received. Mass spectra were recorded on a Micromass
Quattro-LC Electrospray Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer. All
the experiments were done in the negative mode with toluene as the
main solvent by using 2.5% of toluene in acetonitrile, capillary
voltage 4.00–4.20 kV, cone voltage 40 kV, and a desolvation temper-
ature of 2208C. Diamagnetic corrections were applied to the
calculations of the magnetic moments.
and two diphosphinoamine ligands.[7b] In contrast to this
complex, which required a cocatalyst for any catalytic activity
to be observed, 2 is a single-component catalyst. Simple
exposure of 2 to ethylene (35 bar, 508C) yielded polyethylene
with moderate activity. Treatment of 2 with MAO again led to
a drastic switch in selectivity towards a statistical distribution
of ethylene oligomers (including some waxes) with a similar
remarkable activity to that of the 1/MAO system (compare
entries 1–4 with entries 10 and 11 in Table 1). Surprisingly,
attempts at activating both 1 and 2 with an excess of AlMe3 in
fact had the opposite effect of totally deactivating the system.
Complex 3 also acts as a single-component ethylene
polymerization catalyst with similar activity to 2. Different
from 2, there are no free coordination sites around chromium
À
in 3, nor are Cr C bonds present which could possibly act as
polymerization initiators. In analogy with 2, attempts to
activate 1 and 3 with an excess of iBu2AlCl did not produce
any catalytic transformation. Treatment of 3 with MAO
instead afforded an ethylene oligomerization catalyst even
more active than 1 with a nearly constant activity over a
period of at least 30 min. The most probable explanation for
the single-component activity of 3 is migration of an alkyl
group
from
the
AlR
residue
leading
to
“[iBuP(NtBu))2AliBuCl]CriBu”, which again can be
regarded as an ionic structure containing a cationic chromium
alkyl. Alkyl shuttling from the alkylated P atom is another
possibility which cannot be ruled out at this stage. Since 2, 3,
and (iBu2Al)2(m-O)-activated 1 yield polymers of similar
molecular weight, it is probable that closely related active
species are generated in the three systems.
The unexpected behavior of the initially intended
(tBuNPNtBu)22À ligand system gave access to a nonspectator
(tBuNPNtBu)À anion, which readily reacts with aluminum
alkyls. The resulting [RP(NtBu)2AlX2]À anions afford ther-
mally stable, single-component chromium catalysts. To the
best of our knowledge, homogeneous single-component
1: A solution of cis-{tBu(H)NP[(m-N)tBu]2PN(H)tBu} (0.348 g,
1 mmol) in THF (20 mL) was treated with nBuLi (0.84 mL, 2.1 mmol,
2.5m in hexanes) at 08C. The mixture was stirred at room temperature
for 18 h. The resulting solution was added to a suspension of
[CrCl2(thf)2] (0.268 g, 1 mmol) in THF (10 mL). The reaction mixture
was stirred at room temperature overnight. The solvent was
evaporated in vacuo and the residue redissolved in toluene. The
resulting suspension was centrifuged and the solution was stored at
À308C. Brown crystals of 1 separated over two days and were filtered,
washed with cold hexanes (10 mL), and dried in vacuo to give
analytically pure compound (0.294 g, 74%). meff = 4.98 mB; ESI-MS
(assignment, rel. intensity): m/z: 397.0 ([MÀH]À, 42), 341.1
5818
ꢀ 2008 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 5816 –5819