Cyclopentadienyl Nickel and Palladium Complexes/Activator System for the Vinyl-Type Copolymerization of Norbornene with Norbornene Carboxylic Acid Esters: Control of Polymer Solubility and Glass Transition Temperature

In non‐polar solvents such as toluene, Cp‐Ni and ‐Pd complexes (Cp = η5‐C5H5) with appropriate activators have been found to induce the addition polymerization of norbornene in excellent yields, for example (Cp)Pd(allyl)/[Ph3C][B(C6F5)4] gave 105 120 kg‐polymer/cat‐mol · h at room temperature. While the Cp‐Pd system was not suitable in the presence of ester‐substituted norbornenes, the Cp‐Ni system, for example (Cp)Ni(Cl)(PPh3)/AlMe3/B(C6F5)3 can copolymerize norbornene with 5‐norbornene‐2‐carboxylic acid methyl ester in toluene to give high yields (up to 68% in 2 h at room temperature) of copolymer with variable contents of the methyl ester monomer unit (17.4–60.7 mol‐%). These copolymers have high molecular weights ($\overline M _{\rm n}$ = 234 100–109 500) and narrow molecular weight distributions ($\overline M _{\rm w} /\overline M _{\rm n}$ = 1.78–1.89). In addition, they are soluble in common organic solvents giving flexible and transparent films on casting, that show very high Tg in the range of 352.8 to 316.0 °C. The same Ni‐catalyst system can also copolymerize norbornene derivatives with bulky substituents, i.e., 2‐butyl‐5‐norbornene and 5‐norbornene‐2‐carboxylic acid butyl ester. The Tg of these copolymers are lower (294.9–267.3 °C) than the methyl ester‐based copolymers, demonstrating that the Tg of the polynorbornene copolymer film can be tailored simply by changing the alkyl group of the monomer to within the range of 352 to 267 °C. Figure showing the addition polymerization of norbornene using Cp‐Ni complex with appropriate activators.