Bisphenolate ligands with pyridine- and benzene-diyl linkers have been synthesized and metalated with group 4 and 5 transition metals. The solid-state structures of some of the group 4 complexes have been solved. The titanium, zirconium, hafnium, and vanadium complexes were tested for propylene polymerization and ethylene/1-octene copolymerization activities with methylaluminoxane as cocatalyst. The vanadium(III) precatalyst is the most active for propylene polymerization and shows the highest 1-octene incorporation for ethylene/1-octene copolymerization. The zirconium(IV) precatalyst was the most active for propylene polymerization of the group 4 precatalysts. Titanium(IV) and zirconium(IV) precatalysts with pyridine-diyl linkers provided mixtures of isotactic and atactic polypropylene while titanium(IV) precatalysts with benzene-diyl linkers gave atactic polypropylene only. The hafnium(IV) precatalyst with a pyridine-diyl linker generated moderately isotactic polypropylene
