Catalyst speciation during polymerization of 1-hexene in benzene or toluene solutions of the catalyst precursor SBIZr(μ-Me)2AlMe2+ B(C6F5)4-(SBI = rac-dimethylsilyl-bis(1-indenyl)) at 23 °C is studied by following the accompanying UV-vis-spectral changes. These indicate that the onset of polymerization catalysis is associated with the concurrent formation of two distinct zirconocene species. One of these is proposed to consist of SBIZr-σ-polyhexenyl cations arising from SBIZr-Me+ (formed from SBIZr(μ-Me)2AlMe2+ by release of AlMe3) by repeated olefin insertions, while the other one is proposed to consist of SBIZr-η3-allyl cations of composition SBIZr-η3-(1-R-C3H4)+ (R = npropyl), [...].
Keywords: UV-vis spectroscopy; catalyst speciation; de-activation; polymerization catalysis; re-activation; zirconocene-allyl cations.