1,1-Disubstituted
ethylene derivatives with oxygen functionalities,
such as methallyl and isoprenyl ethers and acetate, were employed
as comonomers with α-olefins catalyzed by Pd–diimine
complexes. A mixture of a chloro(methyl)palladium complex with α-diimine
ligand having 2,4,6-trimethylphenyl groups at the coordinated N atoms
(I) and Na+B{C6H3(CF3)2-3,5}4
– catalyzes
the copolymerization of 1-decene with methallyl tert-butyl ether (1) at 0 °C to produce copolymers
with comonomer content of 9.7 mol %. Methallyl acetate (2) undergoes copolymerization with 1-decene to afford the corresponding
copolymers with comonomer content of 1.0 to 3.3 mol %. Nuclear magnetic
resonance analyses of the copolymers of 1-decene with 1 and 2 revealed that no significant β-alkoxy or
β-acetate elimination takes place during the polymerization
and that the insertion mode of the comonomer determines the location
of the monomer on either the main chain or the terminal of the copolymer.
Related compounds, isoprenyl tert-butyl ether (3), isoprenyl acetate (4), and isoprenyl trimethylsilyl
ether (5), undergo copolymerization with 1-decene or
1-hexene to afford the corresponding copolymers with comonomer content
of 1.0 to 6.2 mol %. The reaction with a higher concentration of a
comonomer results in the formation of polymers with higher comonomer
content.