Vinyl homo/copolymerization of norbornene and ethylene using sterically enhanced 1,2‐bis(arylimino)acenaphthene–palladium precatalysts

A family of unsymmetrical 1,2‐bis(imino)acenaphthene‐palladium methyl chloride complexes 1‐2,6‐{(C₆H₅)₂CH}₂‐ 4‐{C(CH₃)₃}‐C₆H₂N]‐2‐(ArN)C₂C₁₀H₆]PdMeCl (Ar = 2,6‐Me₂Ph Pd1 , 2,6‐Et₂Ph Pd2 , 2,6‐ⁱPr₂Ph Pd3 , 2,4,6‐Me₃Ph Pd4 , 2,6‐Et₂‐4‐MePh Pd5 ) have been prepared and fully characterized by ¹H/¹³C NMR, FTIR spectroscopies, and elemental analysis. X‐ray diffraction analysis of Pd2 complex revealed a square planar geometry. Upon activation with methylaluminoxane, all the palladium complexes displayed high activities for norbornene (NBE) homo‐polymerization producing insoluble polymer. For the copolymerization of NBE with ethylene, Pd4 complex exhibited good activities with high incorporation of ethylene (up to 59.2–77.4%) and the resultant copolymer showed high molecular weights as maximum as 150.5 kg mol^?1. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2018 , 56, 922–930