Hydrophilic Catalysts with High Activity and Stability in the Aqueous Polymerization of Ethylene to High‐Molecular‐Weight‐Polyethylene

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Water‐soluble synthetic transition metal catalysts have been studied extensively for many reactions, but for olefin polymerization such catalysts have been lacking. We report herein a straightforward synthesis of phosphinephenolato NiII catalysts endowed permanently with a hydrophilic sulfonate moiety bound to the chelating ligand. These catalysts’ hydrophilic active sites promote aqueous ethylene polymerization with high activity (TOF up to 6.3×104 molEthylene molNi−1 h−1) to high molecular weight polyethylene (HDPE), with half‐lives on the order of hours also at elevated temperatures. The obtained polyethylene dispersions feature narrow particle size distributions without any aggregates.