ACTIVATING SUPPORTS WITH NON-METALLOCENE COMPLEXES

1 - 12 . (canceled)

13 . A method for preparing an active supported catalyst system comprising:

preparing an activating support comprising:

providing a support prepared from one or more porous mineral oxides;

optionally heating the support under inert gas;

functionalising the support with a solution containing an alkylating agent;

fluorinating the support with a solution containing a fluorinating agent; and

retrieving an active fluorinated support;

reacting an iron-based non-metallocene coordinating complex with the activating support to form a reaction mixture, wherein the iron-based non-metallocene coordinating comples is represented by the general formula:

wherein X represents an atom or group covalently or ionically bound to iron; L is a heteroatom-containing ligand; n is an integer from 1 to 3; T is the oxidation state of the transition metal, b is the valence of the atom or group X; R 2 and R 4 are each independently selected from hydrogen, halogen, substituted or unsubstituted hydrocarbyl, substituted or unsubstituted heterohydrocarbyl and SiR′ 3 wherein R′ is independently selected from hydrogen, halogen, substituted or unsubstituted hydrocarbyl and substituted or unsubstituted heterohydrocarbyl; any adjacent R′ s may be joined together to form a ring; Y and Y′ are each independently selected from C and P(R 3 ); A 1 , at least one of A 2 and A 3 is CR 9 and the remaining A 2 or A 3 is selected from N, P and CR 9 ; R 3 , R 7 , R 8 and R 9 are each independently selected from hydrogen, halogen, substituted or unsubstituted hydrocarbyl, substituted or unsubstituted heterohydrocarbyl and SiR′ 3 ; and

adding an organo-metallic compound having at least one metal-carbon bond to the reaction mixture;

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein Y, Y′ or combinations thereof is C.

15 . The method of claim 13 , wherein R 2 and R 4 are each independently selected from substituted or unsubstituted alicyclic, heterocyclic and aromatic groups.

16 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the non-metallocene coordinating complex is selected from the following formulas:

wherein M is iron.

17 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the functionalisation and fluorination steps are carried out in one step with an agent containing at least one aluminum, one fluorine and an organic group.

18 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the functionalisation agent is Al(R) 2 F, wherein the R′ groups are the same or different and are alkyl groups having from 1 to 20 carbon atoms.

19 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the organo-metallic compound is aluminum alkyl.

20 . An active iron-based catalyst system formed by claim 13 .