The independent discovery by the groups of Brookhart and Gibson that bis(imino)pyridyl (N 3 ) complexes of iron and cobalt ( Figure 1) are precursors for active polymerization and oligomerization catalysts [1] has put a new perspective on late transition metals as polymerization catalysts. However, there have been very few reports of successful extension of the system (other than trivial changes of substituents), which indicates that our understanding of this catalytic system is still incomplete.The mechanism by which polymerization is believed to proceed is essentially the same as for early transition metals, that is, the active species is a cationic metal(ii) alkyl complex. One recent publication contradicts this belief for the ironbased catalyst system. [2] Mechanistic studies are difficult for several reasons. In addition to problems of high activity (and hence low concentration) and the large excess of MAO (MAO methylaluminoxane) used, the Fe and Co systems are also paramagnetic, which complicates NMR spectroscopy studies. Gibson has mentioned some preliminary studies of iron ± alkyl species which appear to support formation of [N 3 FeR] [3] moieties, but so far no reports on the corresponding Co systems have appeared. The groups of Gambarotta [4a] Figure 4. The relationship between the electron transfer and the metal ± ligand bond lengths. crossover phenomenon. However, the present calorimetric study clearly revealed that this novel phenomenon is quite different from usual (or classical) spin-crossover phenomenon.
Experimental SectionSynthesis of 1 is reported elsewhere. [1, 4] Heat capacity measurements between 8 K and 300 K were made with a home-built adiabatic microcalorimeter. [11, 12] The mass of the sample for calorimetry was 0.95853 g (1.4556 mmol). A small amount of He gas was sealed in the calorimeter cell to aid the heat transfer.