High-molecular weight poly(2-substituted 1,3-diene)s using iminopyridine iron precatalysts at high polymerization temperature and low iron loading

The synthesis of a series of iron(II) dichloride complexes bearing iminopyridine (ImPy) ligands, differing in the substituents at the pyridine, bridging carbon and N-aryl ring is described (1-LPh-7-LS). The X-ray structures of some of them are presented. All the iron compounds and, for comparison, the already reported 8-LPh, that features bulky ortho isopropyl N-aryl substituents, have been investigated as precatalysts for the polymerization of 2-substituted 1,3-dienes, i.e., isoprene and ?-myrcene, using a low excess of methylaluminoxane (MAO) as alkylating reagent, iron loading as low as 0.025 mol% and variable temperature up to 100 °C. The goal is to have insights into ligand effects on catalyst reactivity and selectivity and to recognize the most robust iron precatalysts to access high-molecular weight (MW) polymers using low iron loading and high polymerization temperature, which meets current demands of mild, operationally simple approach. Particularly, the ketimine 4-LPh and 5-LPh are more stable and least prone to chain termination than all the aldimine parents. 4-LPh and 5-LPh produce cis-1,4/3,4 ultra-high-MW poly(isoprene)s and solid high-MW poly(?-myrcene)s, while maintaining narrow and unimodal molecular weight distribution. In this study we intentionally kept the monomer conversion low to provide a valuable assessment of catalyst stability, uncorrupted by mass or heat transport limitations. Furthermore, the synthesis of the unsubstituted aminopyridine (AmPy) iron(II) dichloride complex 9-LAPh, analogue to 1-LPh, is described. 9-LAPh has been demonstrated to be a valuable probe for stability studies. Given the variety of catalytic transformations and substrates for which (ImPy)FeCl precatalysts have promising reactivity and selectivity, those developed in this study offer promising applications also beyond the polymerization of 1,3-dienes.