The paper presents details of catalytic dehydrogenation reactions of two high molecular weight, highly branched hydrocarbons, a polymer of 1-hexene and an oligomer of 1-butene, and describes kinetic analysis of these reactions. The dehydrogenation reactions were catalyzed with two pincer Ir complexes, [4-methoxy-2,6-C6H3(CH2P-tent-Bu-2)(2)]IrH2 and [4-methoxy-2,6-C6H2(CH2P-iso-Pr-2)(2)]IrH2, and were carried out at 150 degrees C in p-xylene solutions with norbornene as a hydrogen acceptor. The structure of all dehydrogenation reaction products and the Ir species was determined by H-1 and P-31 NMR. Mechanistically, these reactions are similar to dehydrogenation reactions of low molecular weight alkanes. Kinetic analysis of the reactions yielded the values of effective rate constants for all major reaction steps in the catalytic cycle. The results show that catalytic dehydrogenation of branched polymers in the presence of an alkene hydrogen acceptor is feasible at increased temperatures and represents a viable route to post-synthetic modification of branched polyolefins. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.