Polymer-supported organometallic compounds of titanium,zirconium and hafnium as hydrogenation catalysts

Cyclopentadienyl compounds of titanium, zirconium and hafnium have been prepared attached to polymers by first binding cyclopentadiene to styrene-divinylbenzene (20%) copolymers and then converting them to cyclopentadienyl anions. The resin-bound anions were treated with MCl_n and polymer-attached Mcl_n?1 compounds were formed (where M = Ti, Zr and Hf). The polymer-attached monocyclopentadienyl titanium trichloride on reduction with butyl lithium produces active catalysts whose hydrogenation efficiencies are 10 to 20 times as great as the corresponding non-attached species under the same conditions. Studies of the physical nature of the metal catalyst dispersions on the polymer supports by using an electron-X-ray fluorescence microprobe indicate that the dispersion is uniform throughout the entire section of the bead.