The palladium diphosphine complex 4 converts ethylene to hyperbranched unsaturated oligomers (Mn ≈ 330 g/mol) at 22 °C. In addition to the high stability of this catalyst observed at temperatures up to 75 °C, an increase of the reaction temperature leads to a decrease in branching densities of the oligomers, in sharp contrast to the palladium and nickel diimine catalyst systems. One-pot oligomerizations/hydrogenations were carried out to form hyperbranched saturated oligomers.

In contrast to traditional diimine-palladium complexes, sterically hindered “sandwich” diimine-palladium adducts act as olefin isomerization catalysts. Terminal olefins are selectively converted to 2-olefins by a sequence of migratory insertion, β-hydride elimination, and olefin displacement. The reaction is performed at 0 °C with 1 mol % of an air-stable precatalyst and tolerates functional groups such as ketones, silyl ethers, and halogens. The isomerization may be used to produce silyl enol ethers from protected allylic alcohols.