Theoretical Study on Ethylene Polymerization Catalyzed by Half-Titanocenes Bearing Different Ancillary Groups

Half-titanocenes are well known to show high activity for ethylene polymerization and good capability for copolymerization of ethylene with other olefins, and the ancillary ligands can crucially affect the catalytic performance. In this paper, the mechanisms of ethylene polymerization catalyzed by t...

Description complète

Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs principaux: Yang Li, Xiaoling Lai, Xiaowei Xu, Yat-Ming So, Yijing Du, Zhengze Zhang, Yu Pan
Format: article
Langue:EN
Publié: MDPI AG 2021
Sujets:
DFT
Accès en ligne:https://doaj.org/article/3b67e17cfd284e26b4056b70b8af021a
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
Description
Résumé:Half-titanocenes are well known to show high activity for ethylene polymerization and good capability for copolymerization of ethylene with other olefins, and the ancillary ligands can crucially affect the catalytic performance. In this paper, the mechanisms of ethylene polymerization catalyzed by three half-metallocenes, (<i>η</i><sup>5</sup>-C<sub>5</sub>Me<sub>5</sub>)TiCl<sub>2</sub>(O-2,6-<i><sup>i</sup></i>Pr<sub>2</sub>C<sub>6</sub>H<sub>3</sub>) (<b>1</b>), (<i>η</i><sup>5</sup>-C<sub>5</sub>Me<sub>5</sub>)TiCl<sub>2</sub>(N=C<i><sup>t</sup></i>Bu<sub>2</sub>) (<b>2</b>) and [Me<sub>2</sub>Si(<i>η</i><sup>5</sup>-C<sub>5</sub>Me<sub>4</sub>)(N<i><sup>t</sup></i>Bu)]TiCl<sub>2</sub> (<b>3</b>), have been investigated by density functional theory (DFT) method. At the initiation stage, a higher free energy barrier was determined for complex <b>1</b>, probably due to the presence of electronegative O atom in phenoxy ligand. At the propagation stage, front-side insertion of the second ethylene is kinetically more favorable than back-side insertion for complexes <b>1</b> and <b>2</b>, while both side insertion orientations are comparable for complex <b>3</b>. The energy decomposition showed that the bridged cyclopentadienyl amide ligand could enhance the rigidity of the active species as suggested by the lowest deformation energy derived from <b>3</b>. At the chain termination stage, <i>β-</i>H transfer was calculated to be a dominant chain termination route over <i>β</i>-H elimination, presumably owing to the thermodynamic perspective.