Abstract
Water-soluble synthetic transition metal catalysts have been studied extensively for many reactions, but for olefin polymerization such catalysts have been lacking. We report herein a straightforward synthesis of phosphinephenolato Ni(II) catalysts endowed permanently with a hydrophilic sulfonate moiety bound to the chelating ligand. These catalysts' hydrophilic active sites promote aqueous ethylene polymerization with high activity (TOF up to 6.3×10(4) mol(Ethylene) mol(Ni) (-1) h(-1) ) to high molecular weight polyethylene (HDPE), with half-lives on the order of hours also at elevated temperatures. The obtained polyethylene dispersions feature narrow particle size distributions without any aggregates.