Discovery and optimization of new chromium catalysts for ethylene oligomerization and polymerization aided by high-throughput screening.

High throughput screening (HTS) of a 205 member Schiff base salicylaldimine ligand library derived from salicylaldehydes bearing bulky ortho-substituents, i.e., 9-anthracenyl, 1,4,5,8-tetramethylanthracenyl or triptycenyl, reacted in-situ with (p-tolyl)CrCl2(thf)3, identified two new classes of highly active chromium based systems for the oligomerization and polymerization of ethylene, respectively. The polymerization system comprises bidentate ortho-substituted anthracenyl Schiff bases bearing small primary or secondary alkyl imine substituents. The oligomerization catalysts are based upon tridentate ortho-triptycenyl-substituted Schiff bases with pyridylmethyl or quinolyl substituents. Validation tests confirmed polymerization productivities of up to 3000 g x mmol(-1)h(-1)bar(-1) for the polymerization catalyst systems while the oligomerization catalysts gave productivities up to 10 000 g x mmol(-1)h(-1)bar(-1). Key catalyst precursors have been characterized by X-ray crystallography.