Copolymerization of Propene and Nonconjugated Diene Involving Intramolecular Cyclization with Metallocene/Methylaluminoxane

Copolymerizations of propene with 1,5-hexadiene and 1,7-octadiene were carried out with isospecific rac-dimethylsilylenebis(indenyl)zirconium dichloride (1) and syndiospecific diphenylmethylene-(cyclopentadienyl)(9-fluorenyl)zirconium dichloride (2) combined with methylaluminoxane. Microstructures of the copolymers were determined by ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, and DEPT (distortionless enhancement of polarization transfer) spectroscopies. Incorporation of nonconjugated dienes in the copolymer was higher with 2 than with 1. Intramolecular cycloaddition of the nonconjugated dienes proceeded regardless of the catalysts. Stereoselectivity in cycloaddition of 1,5-hexadiene was investigated based on the structures of isolated methylene-1,3-cyclopentane units. It was found that 1,5-hexadiene was inserted stereospecifically by enantiomorphic site control with both catalysts. The diastereoselectivity of the cyclization step of 1,2-inserted 1,5-hexadiene was, however, found to be independent of stereospecificity of the catalyst. The cyclization selectivity of 1,5-hexadiene copolymerization was higher than that of 1,7-octadiene copolymerization. I gave the copolymers with higher selective in cyclization than 2 in the propene/1,5-hexadiene copolymerization, while the opposite tendency was observed in the propene/1,7-octadiene copolymerization. Decrease of cyclization selectivity was observed with the increases of 1,5-hexadiene and 1,7-octadiene concentration in both copolymerizations. Propene insertion could disturb the cyclization of 1,2-inserted dienes, which declined the cyclization selectivity of the copolymers, except propene/1,5-hexadiene copolymerization with 2.