Novel Dendritic PNP Chromium Complexes: Synthesis,Characterization, and Performance on Ethylene Oligomerization

Three dendritic PNP ligands with ethylenediamine, 1,4‐butanediamine, 1,6‐diaminohexane as bridged groups are synthesized in good yields, respectively. Three dendritic PNP chromium complexes ( C1  –  C3 ) are prepared with the ligands and chromium(III ) chloride tetrahydrofuran complex (CrCl₃(THF )₃) as materials. The dendritic PNP ligands and the synthetic chromium complexes are fully characterized by spectroscopic and analytical methods. All chromium complexes activated with methylaluminoxane (MAO ) exhibited moderate activities on ethylene oligomerization (7.90 × 10⁴ – 2.15 × 10⁵ g (mol Cr h)⁻¹] and had better selectivity for C₆ and C₈ oligomer, reaching up to 81%. The chromium complex ( C1 ) activated with diethylaluminium chloride (Et₂AlCl) has higher catalytic activity than the chromium complex C1 activated with MAO , although the chromium complex ( C1 ) activated with Et₂AlCl had lower selectivity for C₆ and C₈ oligomer. The effects of solvent and reaction parameters on ethylene oligomerization are also studied using the chromium complex C1 as pre ‐ catalyst and MAO as co ‐ catalyst. Under optimized conditions (complex] = 2 μmol, Al/Cr = 500, 25 °C, 0.9 MP a ethylene, 30 min), the catalytic activity of complex C1 in toluene is 2.15 × 10⁵ g (mol Cr h)⁻¹ and the selectivity for C₆ and C₈ oligomer is 36.76%. In addition, the structure of complexes significantly affects both the catalytic activity and the selectivity on ethylene oligomerization.