Vinyl Polymerization of Norbornene with Neutral Salicylaldiminato Nickel(II) Complexes

A series of neutral salicylaldiminato Ni(II) complexes have been synthesized and characterized, and complexes a and e have been confirmed by X-ray single-crystal analyses. These compounds show highly catalytic activities for the vinyl polymerization of norbornene with MAO cocatalyst, which could be up to 2.86 × 108 g PNB/(mol Ni·h), and also lead to various activities, molecular weights, and distributions of polynorbornenes under different reaction conditions.