Atmospheric reactivity of ethylene catalyzed by β‐diketiminato Ni(II)/methylaluminoxane system

Atmospheric ethylene reactions were studied with backbone fluorinated β‐diketiminato Ni(II) complexes CH{C(CF 3 )NAr} 2 NiBr (1, Ar = 2,6‐Me 2 C 6 H 3 , and 2 2,6‐ i Pr 2 C 6 H 3 ) activated by methylaluminoxane (MAO). The catalytic systems exhibit the characteristics of catalyzing simultaneously polymerization and oligomerization of ethylene, indicating different active species involved in the reaction system. In an effort to investigate the alkylation species involved in the β‐diketiminato nickel (II)/MAO system, the reaction of 1 with methylaluminoxane were studied. With 19 F{ 1 H NMR} spectra, two sets of new signals different from 1 were presented. Two alkylation products were proposed precursors of active species for producing oligomer and polymer of ethylene in the β‐diketiminato Ni(II)/MAO system. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.