Diiminopyridyl metal complexes, first characterized several decades ago, found practical application in 1998 when they were used as precatalysts in coordinative ethylene polymerization. This discovery contributed to the so-called postmetallocene revolution and triggered the large-scale experimental and theoretical research aimed at understanding diversified diiminopyridine chemistry. The results of this quest, some of which were intriguing and difficult to anticipate, are discussed and summarized in the current Review.

A series of α,α′-bis(arylimino)-2,3:5,6-bis(pentamethylene)pyridyliron chlorides exhibits high activities toward ethylene polymerization, yielding highly linear vinyl-polyethylenes.

A series of 2-(1-arylimino)ethyl-9-arylimino-5,6,7,8-tetrahydrocycloheptapyridine derivatives was synthesized and fully characterized, and thereafter reacted with iron dichloride to form their corresponding iron(II) complexes. The single crystals of representative organic and iron complex compounds were obtained and analyzed by the X-ray diffraction analysis, indicating the distorted bipyramidal geometry around the iron core. Moreover, DFT calculations were performed on selected species to determine their structural features. On treatment with either MAO or MMAO, all iron complex pre-catalysts showed high activities (up to 1.56 × 10(7) gPE mol(-1)(Fe) h(-1)) toward ethylene polymerization. Regarding the nature of the ligands and reaction parameters, their catalytic activities and the characters of the obtained polyethylenes have been carefully investigated. The ring strain of the fused-cycloheptane of the ligands within iron complexes was considered to affect their catalytic performance in ethylene polymerization. The active species were activated and controlled by using a co-catalyst of MMAO preferred over MAO, and the obtained polyethylenes with MMAO showed narrower molecular polydispersity than the corresponding polyethylenes with MAO.

The 2-(1-(arylimino)ethyl)-7-arylimino-6,6-dimethylcyclopentapyridylcobalt complexes were constrainedly prepared, performing polymerization with MAO but oligomerization with MMAO.

An attempt to explain the origin of the vivid red color in precious pink and red corals was undertaken. Raman and IR spectroscopies were applied to characterize white, pink and red corals. The position of the Raman signal near 1500 cm −1 of some corals and pearls was associated by several authors with the presence of the mixture of all-trans-polyenic pigments, containing 6-16 conjugated C C bonds or β-carotenoids. This hypothesis was examined theoretically by performing extensive B3LYP-DFT calculations of vibrational spectra of the model polyenic compounds. The B3LYP/6-311++G * * predicted positions of the dominating Raman mode depend on the number of C C units (Cn parameter) and can be accurately predicted for larger systems from a simple nonlinear fit. The DFT-predicted Raman activities of these modes are extremely sensitive to Cn, and sharply increase with the number of double bonds. This implies a presence of only -two to three polyenes differing slightly in the number of C C units as the source of color in pink and red corals.

The alkaline catalysts commonly applied to alkoxylation are characterized by a limited spectrum of activity caused by an irreversible termination of the polyether chains. The presented results show that double metal cyanide (DMC) catalysts reduce or eliminate the aforementioned adverse rearrangement of hydroxyl groups. Moreover, DMC catalysts indicate high activity at low concentrations (ppm range), as expressed by high polymerization rates. It was demonstrated that decreased concentrations of DMC catalyst irreversibly influence its reactivity and the dispersity of the obtained products, as exemplified by the production and determination of selected polyoxypropylenediols at different concentrations of the catalyst. Because of their unique advantages, the DMC catalysts are a very attractive alternative to conventional alkaline catalysts for the polyaddition of oxiranes. The phenomenon was discussed and explained by an alteration of reaction rate coefficients at subsequent polyaddition stages.

The copolymerization of ethylene and propylene over a heterogeneous Ti(III) catalyst containing tetrahydrofuran (THF) as a Lewis base and MgCl2 as a support has been studied by means of DFT. Two feasible models of active sites have been examined thoroughly, and one of them turned out to be favorable in terms of both catalytic activity and the microstructure of the resulting polymer. The external barriers of olefin insertion for this model range from 3.1 to 16.0 kcal/mol and are influenced by a variety of factors, such as the structure of the growing polymer chain and the nature of the incoming olefin as well as the orientation of the ligands around the titanium atom. Stochastic simulations performed on the basis of insertion and termination barriers provided us with the insight into the composition and microstructure of the copolymer as well as its molecular weight as a function of comonomer partial pressures. It is demonstrated that the reactivity of ethylene in the copolymerization process is significantly higher than that of propylene, which is consistent with known experimental data. Our results also indicate moderate regiospecificity and stereoselectivity toward propylene, depending on the partial pressures of the comonomers.

A series of 1-[2-(bis(4-fluorophenyl)methyl)-4,6-dimethylphenylimino]-2-aryliminoacenaphthylene derivatives together with the corresponding nickel bromide complexes was synthesized and characterized. Representative complexes C2 and C5 were characterized by the single-crystal X-ray diffraction, revealing a distorted tetrahedral geometry. Upon activation with either methylaluminoxane (MAO) or ethylaluminum sesquichloride (EASC), all nickel complexes exhibited high activities towards ethylene polymerization, producing polyethylene with a relatively low degree of branching and narrow polydispersity. Complex C1 maintained good activity at elevated reaction temperatures, which indicates significant thermal stability of the active species.