Advances in the Synthesis of Polyolefin Elastomers with “Chain-walking” Catalysts and Electron Spin Resonance Research of Related Catalytic Systems

In recent years, polyolefin elastomers play an increasingly important role in industry. The late transition metal complex catalysts, especially α-diimine Ni(II) and α-diimine Pd(II) complex catalysts, are popular “chain-walking” catalysts. They can prepare polyolefin with various structures, ranging from linear configuration to highly branched configuration. Combining the “chain-walking” characteristic with different polymerization strategies, polyolefins with good elasticity can be obtained. Among them, olefin copolymer is a common way to produce polyolefin elastomers. For instance, strictly defined diblock or triblock copolymers with excellent elastic properties were synthesized by adding ethylene and α-olefin in sequence. As well as the incorporation of polar monomers may lead to some unexpected improvement. Chain shuttling polymerization can generate multiblock copolymers in one pot due to the interaction of the catalysts with chain shuttling agent. Furthermore, when regarding ethylene as the sole feedstock, owing to the “oscillation” of the ligands of the asymmetric catalysts, polymers with stereo-block structures can be generated. Generally, the elasticity of these polyolefins mainly comes from the alternately crystallineamorphous block structures, which is closely related to the characteristic of the catalytic system. To improve performance of the catalysts and develop excellent polyolefin elastomers, research on the catalytic mechanism is of great significance. Electron spin resonance (ESR), as a precise method to detect unpaired electron, can be applied to study transition metal active center. Therefore, the progress on the exploration of the valence and the proposed configuration of catalyst active center in the catalytic process by ESR is also reviewed.