Addressing
the traditional poor thermostability issues of late-transition
metal is highly important for both polyolefin and polydienes industries.
In this contribution, a series of α-imino-ketone and α-diimine
cobalt complexes bearing intra-ligand H···F noncovalent
interactions were synthesized and thoroughly characterized. From single-crystal
analysis, it was found that such a H···F interaction
could successfully suppress the N-aryl rotations
and result in highly thermal robust active species. In the presence
of ethylaluminum sesquichloride, the complexes revealed high catalytic
efficiencies even at 100 °C, which is superior to fluoro-free
counterparts, confirming solidly the positive influence of intra-ligand
H···F interactions. Moreover, this research also disclosed
that the thermal robust active species could be successfully retained
in the presence of external donor PPh3. After being coordinated
by the Lewis basic PPh3, the polymer yields were also appreciable,
and simultaneously, the original cis-1,4- selectivity
could be shifted to a highly 1,2- manner.