A highly active Ni(II)-triadamantylphosphine catalyst for ultrahigh-molecular-weight polyethylene synthesis.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 30683873.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-08309-8 and PMC identifier 6347634.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Here we report that the tri-1-adamantylphosphine-nickel complex [Ad<sub>3</sub>PNiBr<sub>3</sub>]<sup>-</sup>[Ad<sub>3</sub>PH]<sup>+</sup> upon activation with an alkylaluminoxane catalyzes the polymerization of ethylene to ultrahigh-molecular-weight, nearly linear polyethylene (M<sub>n</sub> up to 1.68 × 10<sup>6</sup> g mol<sup>-1</sup>) with initial activities reaching 3.7 million turnovers per h<sup>-1</sup> at 10 °C. Copolymerizations of ethylene with α-olefins such as 1-hexene and 1-octadecene, as well as tert-butyldimethyl(dec-9-en-1-yloxy)silane give the corresponding copolymers with no decrease in activity.