New titanatranes: Characterization and styrene polymerization behavior

Abstract

New titanatranes containing cyclopentadienyl ligands were prepared by the reactions of various kinds of trialkanolamines with (C5Me4R)TiCl3 (Cp' = C5Me4R) in the presence of triethylamine. The X-ray analyses reveal that they exist in the monomeric form in the solid state and the Ti atom adopts essentially an eta(5) bonding posture with the Cp' ring and a tetradentate bonding mode with the trialkanolatoamine ligand via a transannular interaction from the bridgehead N atom to Ti. All compounds show very high catalytic activity for the syndiospecific polymerization of styrene in the presence of modified methylaluminoxane (MMAO) cocatalyst.