Lewis acids modulation in phosphine‐sulfonate palladium catalyzed ethylene polymerization

Abstract

Lewis acid modulation in metal‐catalyzed olefin polymerization have received increasing attention. In this work, a series of N‐containing phosphine‐sulfonate palladium complexes were synthesized, characterized and used as stimuli‐responsive type catalysts. The introduction of metal Lewis acids results in significantly improved catalytic performances of N‐containing phosphine‐sulfonate Pd catalysts in ethylene polymerization, resulting in improved catalytic activities and high‐molecular‐weight polyethylenes (Mn up to 369.2 kg mol−1). It was indicated that the metal Lewis acids can form interactions with the N‐containing moieties on the phosphine‐sulfonate Pd catalysts. This provides a simple and versatile strategy to tune the properties of olefin polymerization catalysts.