A highly active chiral (S,S)-bis(oxazoline) Pd(ii) alkyl complex/activator catalytic system for vinyl polymerization of norbornene in air and waterElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available. CCDC 988840. For ESI and crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see DOI: 10.1039/c6py01859a

A series of air/water-tolerant chiral Pd alkyl complexes (R 2 -(S,S)-BOZ)PdR′ ( 1-3 , R = CH(CH 3 ) 2 , Ph; R′ = Me, Ph) were synthesized and structurally characterized. In the presence of an excess of activator, such as [Ph 3 C][B(C 6 F 5 ) 4 ], [PhMe 2 NH][B(C 6 F 5 ) 4 ], or B(C 6 F 5 ) 3 , the air/water-tolerant chiral Pd( ii ) alkyl complexes 1-3 could promote the norbornene polymerization in air and water using unpretreated technical grade solvent and monomer with extremely high activity up to 1.7 × 10 9 g PNB per mol Pd per h. The air/water-tolerant chiral Pd alkyl complexes/borate systems promote the norbornene polymerization both in air and water using unpretreated technical grade solvent and monomer with extremely high activity up to 1.7 × 10 9 g PNB per mol Pd per h.