Effects of electrochemical properties of ferrocenylpyrazolylnickel(ii) and palladium(ii) compounds on their catalytic activities in ethylene oligomerisation reactions

Palladium complexes of ferrocenylpyrazolylpyridine and ferrocenylpyrazolylamine were synthesised and screened as pre-catalysts (1–4) for olefin polymerisation. The pre-catalysts 1–4 on activation with EtAlCl(2) in the presence of ethylene with chlorobenzene or hexane as solvent were highly active with 1 being the most active, with an activity of 360 kg mol Pd(−1) h(−1). The major product from the reaction was 1-butene and high carbon content oligomers. The molecular weight (m/z) of the high carbon content oligomers is as high as 623.0. When toluene is used as solvent, the products obtained were ethyltoluene and butyltoluene and 1-butene. The electronic properties of the ligands (L1–L7) and complexes (1–10) were determined by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and molecular modelling. The CV results show that the ferrocenyl is easily oxidized upon the introduction of pyrazolyl derivatives, the process is quasi-reversible. However, complexation of the ligands with palladium or nickel results in difficulty in oxidizing the ferrocenyl moiety. This is an indication of the electrophilic nature of both the palladium and nickel centres. The mechanism of the oxidation was observed to be diffusion-controlled and is independent of scan rate. Molecular modelling experiments show that nickel and palladium complexes have lower HOMO–LUMO gaps and high global descriptors, an indication of a highly electrophilic metal centre. A plot of the electrophilicity indices of the pre-catalysts against yield of the oligomers show a linear correlation, an indication that the electrophilicity of the metal centre plays an important role in the activity of these pre-catalysts.