Polymerization of vinyl monomers via MAO activated iron(II) dichloro complexes bearing bis(imino)pyridine-, quinolinaldimine- and thiophenaldimine-based tridentate nitrogen ligands

A series of iron(II) complexes (4a–d, 10, and 11) bearing 2,6-bis[(imino)ethyl]pyridine-(3a–d), quinolinaldimine-(8) and thiophenaldimine-(9) based ligands were disclosed as active complexes for the polymerization of tert-butylacrylate (t-BA). After activation with methyl aluminoxane (MAO), the complexes showed moderate to high polymerization activities and produced high molar mass polymers. In addition, the catalyst system 4d/MAO was examined for the polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) and n-vinylcarbazole (NVC). The influence of MAO/Cat. molar ratio, polymerization time, and monomer concentration on the polymerization reaction of methyl methacrylate was explored. In the polymerization of tert-butylacrylate with 2,6-bis[(imino)ethyl]pyridine iron(II)-based catalysts, bulky terminal aliphatic substituents have a favorable influence on the polymerization activity compared to the aromatic ones. This catalyst system was also more active than the quinolinaldimine-, (10) and thiophenaldimine-, (11) based catalysts.