| In recent years work with late transition-metals has shown their activity as polymerization catalysts. There has also been work in the area of NHCs (N-heterocyclic carbenes) showing that their complexes are active catalysts in carbon - carbon bond formation reactions. It was therefore proposed that a Ni(II) complex containing NHC ligands be synthesized and studied for activity as a polymerization catalyst. The complex studied was the Ni(IPr)2Cl 2 where IPr = 1,3-bis(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)imidazol-2-ylidene. The complex was characterized using NMR and X-ray crystallography. The crystal structure shows that the ligands in the complex have a trans geometry. Polymerization experiments were performed with three monomers, ethylene, propylene, and 1-hexene (under argon) using MAO to activate the Ni complex. With each of the monomers no polymer was produced, however 1-butene was catalytically produced through the dimerization of ethylene. |
