Coordination compounds of Titanium (IV) and 2-hydroxymethyl-phenol derivatives: their synthesis, structure and catalytic activity in ethylene and 1-hexene polymerization

Abstract A series of titanium complexes LTiCl 2 ·( i PrOH) 2 12-18 and heterobimetallic complex L 2 Ti· i PrOLi·THF 19 bearing saligenin-type [O,O] 2- ligands 6-11 were synthesized in high yields from Cl 2 Ti(O i Pr) 2 or LiTi(O i Pr) 5 . X-ray structure analyses for 15 and 19 revealed that these complexes adopt a distorted octahedron or distorted tetragonal pyramid geometry. When activated by binary activator {3Et 2 AlCl + Bu 2 Mg}, complexes 12-19 exhibited moderate to high activities toward ethylene and 1-hexene polymerization, giving high molecular weight polymers with broad molecular weight distributions. The results of this study show the unique ability of Li and Mg chlorides to improve the catalytic ability of post-metallocene pre-catalysts.