Novel metallocene catalysts for syndiotactic polystyrene

A series of new half-metallocene complexes of titanium containing siloxy ligands and a new bimetallic titanocene complex (compound 1) with a crystallographically determined structure have been prepared. When activated with methylaluminoxane (MAO), they showed high activities toward polymerization of styrene with high syndiotacticity. Origin of the high activity and syndiotacticity found in this work was investigated systematically by comparison with polymerization results using other known complexes. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.