Silane as Chain Transfer Agent for the Polymerization of Ethylene Catalyzed by a Palladium(II) Diimine Catalyst

A strategy for the synthesis of semitelechelic polyethylene through the palladium diimine-catalyzed chain-transfer polymerization of ethylene using various silanes as chain-transfer agents is reported. Polymer molecular weight and end-group chemical structure can be tuned by varying the chain-transfer agent as well as its concentration. NMR spectroscopy confirms that the silicon of the chain-transfer agent is incorporated into the polymer. The stability of the catalyst toward polar monomer enables the chain-transfer polymerization of semitelechelic poly(ethylene-methyl acrylate) copolymers.