OLIGOMERIZATION OF ETHYLENE TO LINEAR ALPHA-OLEFINS BY A TITANIUM ARYL OXIDE ALKYLALUMINUM CATALYST

Ethylene was oligomerized to linear alpha-olefins of even carbon numbers ranging from C4 to C26 with a homogeneous Ti(OR)4-Et3Al2Cl3 catalyst system. The catalyst exhibits excellent oligomerization activity over a wide range of temperature. Under the experimental conditions ethylene conversion was > 94% in all cases. A maximum alpha-olefin content of 98.5% was obtained with Ti-(OC6H4CH3)4-Et3Al2Cl3 system at 50-degrees-C and Al/Ti ratio of 18. The linearity was consideraby reduced at lower temperatures and lower Al/Ti ratios. The alpha-olefins produced with the Ti-(OC6H4CH3)4-Et3Al2Cl3 catalyst generally followed the Schulz-Flory molecular weight distribution law, and the chain growth factor K determined experimentally over the entire C4-C26 range of oligomers varied from 0.81 to 0.85.