Research alkene oligomerization

Along with enabling technological advances in alkene polymerizations, the application of new ancillary ligands or cocatalysts has become significant in the field of alkene oligomerizations to obtain a-olefms. This research exploits a new phase in the development of known catalyst systems containing Gr, Ni, Pd, Ti metal centers, as well as Fe and Co as newcomers. 

The 1963 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Karl Ziegler and Giulio Natta for their research on catalysts (see Catalysis) for the oligomerization see Oligomer) and polymerization see Polymerization) of alkenes under mild conditions of temperature and pressure. Their discoveries have grown into a multibillion dollar industry for the production of plastics, elastomers, and inexpensive feedstock chemicals for copolymers, surfactants, and other useM additives. ... 

The light alkenes (propene, butene and pentene) are important feedstocks for alkylation, oligomerization and the synthesis of ethers (refs. 1,2). MTBE (methyl tert-butyl ether) and TAME (tert-amyl methyl ether) have research octane numbers of 118 and 112 respectively. These premium blend stocks are synthesised by reaction of methanol with isobutene or isopentene (refs. 3,4). The reaction with methanol is selective towards the branched alkenes so that a mixture may be treated and the straight chain alkenes recovered for other processing such as alkylation. 

---