Methylene-bridged bimetallic bis(imino)pyridine-cobaltous chlorides as precatalysts for vinyl-terminated polyethylene waxes.

Four examples of phenol-substituted methylene-bridged bis(imino)pyridines, CH(C6H4-4-OH){2'-(4-C6H2-2,6-R22N[double bond, length as m-dash]CMe)-6'-(2'',6''-R12C6H3N[double bond, length as m-dash]CMe)C5H3N}2 [R1 = R2 = Me L1, R1 = R2 = Et L2, R1 = Et, R2 = Me L3, R1 = iPr, R2 = Me L4], have been synthesized and fully characterized. Treatment of L1-L4 with two equivalents of cobaltous chloride affords the bimetallic complexes, [(L)Co2Cl4] (L = L1 Co1, L2 Co2, L3 Co3, L4 Co4), in good yield. The molecular structure of Co1 shows the two metal centers to be separated by a distance of 13.339 Å with each cobalt displaying a distorted trigonal bipyramidal geometry. On activation with either MAO or MMAO, Co1-Co4 exhibited high activities for ethylene polymerization (up to 1.46 × 107 g(PE) mol-1(Co) h-1 at 50 °C) with their relative values influenced by the steric properties of the N-aryl groups: Co1 > Co3 > Co4 > Co2. Highly linear polyethylenes incorporating high degrees of vinyl end-groups are a feature of all the materials produced with the molecular weights of the MAO-promoted systems (Mw range = 2-8 kg mol-1) generally higher than seen with MMAO (Mw range = 1-3 kg mol-1), while the distributions using MMAO are narrower (PDI < 2.0).