Pd-Promoted Copolymerization of Methallyl and Isoprenyl Ethers and Acetate with α-Olefins

Abstract

1,1-Disubstituted ethylene derivatives with oxygen functionalities, such as methallyl and isoprenyl ethers and acetate, were employed as comonomers with α-olefins catalyzed by Pd–diimine complexes. A mixture of a chloro(methyl)palladium complex with α-diimine ligand having 2,4,6-trimethylphenyl groups at the coordinated N atoms (I) and Na+B{C6H3(CF3)2-3,5}4– catalyzes the copolymerization of 1-decene with methallyl tert-butyl ether (1) at 0 °C to produce copolymers with comonomer content of 9.7 mol %. Methallyl acetate (2) undergoes copolymerization with 1-decene to afford the corresponding copolymers with comonomer content of 1.0 to 3.3 mol %. Nuclear magnetic resonance analyses of the copolymers of 1-decene with 1 and 2 revealed that no significant β-alkoxy or β-acetate elimination takes place during the polymerization and that the insertion mode of the comonomer determines the location of the monomer on either the main chain or the terminal of the copolymer. Related compounds, isoprenyl tert-butyl ether (3), isoprenyl acetate (4), and isoprenyl trimethylsilyl ether (5), undergo copolymerization with 1-decene or 1-hexene to afford the corresponding copolymers with comonomer content of 1.0 to 6.2 mol %. The reaction with a higher concentration of a comonomer results in the formation of polymers with higher comonomer content.