Double-decker-type dinuclear nickel catalyst for olefin polymerization: efficient incorporation of functional co-monomers.

The ethylene polymerization and copolymerization of olefins catalyzed by dinuclear transition-metal complexes have recently attracted recent attention. Both earlyand latetransition-metal complexes with a dinuclear structure lead to an increase in the molecular weight in ethylene polymerization and in the co-monomer content for the copolymerization of ethylene with various co-monomers. The stabilization of the growing polymer end and coordination of the comonomer are efficient in the bimetallic system. Marks and co-workers synthesized a planar dinickel complex, which is supported by an aromatic bis(salicylaldimine) ligand (Scheme 1a), and found that copolymerization of ethylene