Chiral Palladium(II) and Nickel(II) Complexes with C2‑Symmetrical Tridentate Bis(oxazoline) Ligands: Synthesis, Characterization, and Catalytic Norbornene Polymerization

A series of chiral palladium­(II) and nickel­(II) complexes bearing a C2-symmetric monoanionic tridentate bis­(oxazoline) ligand, (R2-(S,S)-BOZ)­M­(X) (1–6: R = CH­(CH3)2, M = Pd, X = OAc (1); R = CH­(CH3)2, M = Pd, X = Cl (2); R = Ph, M = Pd, X = Cl (3); R = Ph, M = Ni, X = Cl (4); R = CH­(CH3)2, M = Ni, X = Cl (5); R = CH­(CH3)2, M = Pd, X = OTf (6)), have been synthesized and structurally characterized. The experimental results demonstrate that such chiral palladium­(II) and nickel­(II) complexes bearing C2-symmetric tridentate ligands in which the monoanionic group is located inside are effective for norbornene polymerization. In the presence of various cocatalysts such as MAO, MMAO, and activator/AlR3, these chiral palladium­(II) complexes exhibit much higher activities of up to 4.8 × 108 g of PNB (mol of Pd)−1 h–1 for the vinylic polymerization of norbornene, affording insoluble polynorbornenes with high packing density. In contrast, the chiral nickel­(II) complexes show relatively low activities of ca. 4.5 × 107 g of PNB (mol of Ni)−1 h–1 and produce both insoluble polynorbornenes and soluble high-molecular-weight polynorbornenes with moderate molecular weight distributions.