Dongheng Zhang

Ethylene polymerization promoted by nickel complexes

The nickel complexes are of special relevance to catalysis for ethylene oligomerization and polymerization. Beyond the famous commercial SHOP process for ethylene oligomerization, among recent progress of nickel catalysts, various nickel complexes containing different ligands such as the bidentate and tridentate ligands are of interest. In contrast to the importance of hetereogeneous catalysis, the homogeneous catalyst is a small share for polyolefins, while the well-defined complexes affect the microstructure of the resultant polyolefin. The nickel catalysts often perform ethylene activations for inner olefins and the branched polyethylene with broad or bimodal molecular weight distribution. The catalytic behavior will be affected by adaptation of ligands coordinating around the nickel center. In addition, the auxiliary ligand Ph3P can improve the catalytic activity by one order of magnitude, and its active center can be confirmed through isolating and characterizing the reliable intermediate.