A phosphino-oxazoline ligand as a P,N-bridge in palladium/cobalt or P,N-chelate in nickel complexes: catalytic ethylene oligomerization

The Pd(II) complex [PdCl(2)(1)] [1 = ({oxazolin-2-yl}methyl)diphenylphosphine] was obtained by the 1:1 reaction of 1 with [PdCl(2)(NCPh)(2)]. Although this neutral complex is stable in the solid-state and in solution, it reacts with the dinuclear complex [CoCl(2)(μ-1)](2) to afford the heterometallic zwitterionic complex [{PdCl(1)}(+)(μ-1)(CoCl(3))(-)] (2). Under inert atmosphere, two equivalents of 1 reacted with [NiCl(2)(dme)] to give trans-[NiCl(2)(1)(2)] (3) in CH(2)Cl(2) but cis-[NiCl(2)(1)(2)] (4) in CHCl(3). When the latter reaction was performed in air, trans-[NiCl(2)(5)(2)] (6) [5 = ({oxazolin-2-yl}methyl)diphenylphosphine oxide] was obtained. All metal complexes, 2, 3, 4 and 6, have been structurally characterized by X-ray diffraction. Complexes 3, 4 and 6 have been evaluated as precatalysts for ethylene oligomerisation in the presence of AlEtCl(2) as cocatalyst. Complexes 3 and 6 yielded a turnover frequency (TOF) of 60,700 and 62,600 mol of C(2)H(4)/((mol of Ni)·h), respectively, in the presence of 10 equiv. of AlEtCl(2). In the presence of only 6 equiv. of cocatalyst, these Ni complexes yielded TOF values of 41,500 and 58,000 mol of C(2)H(4)/((mol of Ni)·h), respectively.