Nature of the Initiation, Propagation, and Chain Transfer Steps during the Formation of Ethylene Oligomers Catalyzed by PdMe₂(<i>N</i>,<i>N</i>,<i>N</i>‘<i>N</i>‘-tetramethylethylenediamine)/B(C₆F₅)₃

Abstract

Reaction of equimolar quantities of PdMe 2 (Me 2 NCH 2 CH 2 NMe 2 ) and B(C 6 F 5 ) 3 in the presence of ethylene results in the formation of [PdMe(C 2 H 4 )(Me 2 NCH 2 CH 2 NMe 2 )] + [BMe(C 6 F 5 ) 3 ] -; the latter catalyzes the oligomerization of ethylene to highly branched products, which are apparently formed via both reversible β-elimination−reinsertion processes and the incorporation of short chain oligomeric products.