Homo- and heteroditopic sulfur-based bidentate ligands towards selective ethylene oligomerisation: The critical influence of ligand structure on product profile

Homo- and heteroditopic sulfur-based bidentate ligands can be used successfully for ethylene oligomerisation. The obtained liquid product distributions agree well with the metallacycle mechanism. Non-selective systems can be shifted towards predominantly 1-hexene and 1-octene formation (>80% 1-hexene and 1-octene combined, with up to 50% 1-octene selectivity in the liquid product) through appropriate ligand structure modifications.