Electronic or steric effects: Detailed DFT investigations of titanium amino based Kaminsky type olefin catalysts

We report detailed Density Functional Theory (DFT) investigations of a series of structurally similar titanium (IV) chelating σ-aryl catalysts. Particular attention was paid to the electronic charges of the Ti, C ipso of the substituted aryl group and the benzylic CH₂ and C_ipso atoms. The Bader and NBO derived charges were compared with the recently reported polymerisation results by Chan. We found a strong correlation between the relative energies of one of the computed isomers and the activity of the catalyst. Neither NBO nor Bader charges could be convincingly correlated to the observed activity.