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A saturated N-heterocyclic carbene–phenolate bidentate ligand, 3,3a,4,5-tetrahydroimidazo[1,5-a]quinolin-9-olate-1-ylidene (SIzQO), was synthesized and characterized. The SIzQO ligand was then treated with PdClMe(pyridine)2 and [Pd(μ-Cl)Me(2,6-lutidine)]2, which afforded C,C-cis-(SIzQO)PdMe(pyridine) and the thermodynamically unstable trans isomer C,C-trans-(SIzQO)PdMe(2,6-lutidine), respectively. The latter isomerizes at 40 °C into the corresponding cis isomer via a dissociative mechanism. These palladium/SIzQO complexes catalyze the polymerization of ethylene at 100–120 °C, although the catalytic activity is lower than that of a previously reported palladium/imidazo[1,5-a]quinolin-9-olate-1-ylidene (IzQO) system.

Coordination–insertion copolymerization of ethylene with 1,1-disubstituted ethylenes bearing a polar functional group, such as me-thyl methacrylate (MMA), is a long-standing challenge in catalytic polymerization. The major obstacle for this process is the huge difference in reactivity of ethylene versus 1,1-disubstituted ethylenes towards both coordination and insertion. Herein we report the copolymerization of ethylene and 1,1-disubstituted ethylenes by using an imidazo[1,5-a]quinolin-9-olate-1-ylidene (IzQO)-supported palladium catalyst. Various types of 1,1-disubstituted ethylenes were successfully incorporated into the polyethylene chain. In-depth characterization of the obtained copolymers and mechanistic inferences drawn from stoichiometric reactions of alkylpalladium com-plexes with methyl methacrylate and ethylene indicate that the copolymerization proceeds by the same coordination–insertion mech-anism that has been postulated for ethylene.

The mechanism of linear polyethylene formation catalyzed by palladium/phosphine−sulfonate and the effect of the ligand structure on the catalytic performance, such as linearity and molecular weight of the polyethylene, were reinvestigated theoretically and experimentally. We used dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT-D3) to study the entire mechanism of polyethylene formation from (R2PC6H4SO3)PdMe(2,6-lutidine) (R = Me, t-Bu) and elucidated the key steps that determine the molecular weight and linearity of the polyethylene. The alkylpalladium ethylene complex is the key intermediate for both linear propagation and β-hydride elimination from the growing polymer chain. On the basis of the key species, the effects of substituents on the phosphorus atom (R = t-Bu, i-Pr, Cy, Men, Ph, 2-MeOC6H4, biAr) were further investigated theoretically to explain the experimental results in a comprehensive manner. Thus, the experimental trend of molecular weights of polyethylene could be correlated to the ΔΔG...

The graft density dependence of main chain stiffness in rod brushes composed of a flexible linear polystyrene (PS) main chain and poly(n-hexyl isocyanate) (PHIC) rod side chains has thoroughly been investigated by static light (LS) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) measurements in tetrahydrofuran (THF) at 25 °C. A series of statistical graft copolymers having different graft densities (σ) and graft chain lengths (PS-g-HIC-Ns-lg, where Ns is the weight-averaged degree of polymerization of HIC and lg is the average distance (spacing) of the main chain between the side chain joints) were prepared by the nearly azeotrope radical copolymerizations of styrene (M1) with PHIC macromonomers (M2) (r1 = 0.84 ± 0.1 and r2 = 1.1 ± 0.3) in n-hexane or the bulk at 60 °C. The compositional heterogeneities of the graft copolymers were carefully characterized by the ratio of the UV to RI signal in the SEC traces and the comparison with those predicted from the theory by Stejskal and Kratochvil [Macromolecules 1987, 2...