EP1920031A1 - Schmiermittel aus gemischten alpha-olefin-einsatzstoffen - Google Patents

Schmiermittel aus gemischten alpha-olefin-einsatzstoffen

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Publication number
EP1920031A1
EP1920031A1 EP06787492A EP06787492A EP1920031A1 EP 1920031 A1 EP1920031 A1 EP 1920031A1 EP 06787492 A EP06787492 A EP 06787492A EP 06787492 A EP06787492 A EP 06787492A EP 1920031 A1 EP1920031 A1 EP 1920031A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
alpha
feed
olefins
less
process according
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Granted
Application number
EP06787492A
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English (en)
French (fr)
Other versions
EP1920031B1 (de
Inventor
Margaret M. Wu
Norman Yang
Phil Surana
Anura Patil
Steven P. Rucker
Kuangnan Qian
Shakeel Tirmizi
Mark Hagemiester
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ExxonMobil Chemical Patents Inc
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ExxonMobil Chemical Patents Inc
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Priority claimed from PCT/US2006/021399 external-priority patent/WO2007011462A1/en
Application filed by ExxonMobil Chemical Patents Inc filed Critical ExxonMobil Chemical Patents Inc
Publication of EP1920031A1 publication Critical patent/EP1920031A1/de
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Classifications

    • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C10—PETROLEUM, GAS OR COKE INDUSTRIES; TECHNICAL GASES CONTAINING CARBON MONOXIDE; FUELS; LUBRICANTS; PEAT
    • C10G—CRACKING HYDROCARBON OILS; PRODUCTION OF LIQUID HYDROCARBON MIXTURES, e.g. BY DESTRUCTIVE HYDROGENATION, OLIGOMERISATION, POLYMERISATION; RECOVERY OF HYDROCARBON OILS FROM OIL-SHALE, OIL-SAND, OR GASES; REFINING MIXTURES MAINLY CONSISTING OF HYDROCARBONS; REFORMING OF NAPHTHA; MINERAL WAXES
    • C10G50/00—Production of liquid hydrocarbon mixtures from lower carbon number hydrocarbons, e.g. by oligomerisation
    • C10G50/02—Production of liquid hydrocarbon mixtures from lower carbon number hydrocarbons, e.g. by oligomerisation of hydrocarbon oils for lubricating purposes
    • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C10—PETROLEUM, GAS OR COKE INDUSTRIES; TECHNICAL GASES CONTAINING CARBON MONOXIDE; FUELS; LUBRICANTS; PEAT
    • C10M—LUBRICATING COMPOSITIONS; USE OF CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES EITHER ALONE OR AS LUBRICATING INGREDIENTS IN A LUBRICATING COMPOSITION
    • C10M105/00—Lubricating compositions characterised by the base-material being a non-macromolecular organic compound
    • C10M105/02—Well-defined hydrocarbons
    • C10M105/04—Well-defined hydrocarbons aliphatic
    • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C10—PETROLEUM, GAS OR COKE INDUSTRIES; TECHNICAL GASES CONTAINING CARBON MONOXIDE; FUELS; LUBRICANTS; PEAT
    • C10M—LUBRICATING COMPOSITIONS; USE OF CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES EITHER ALONE OR AS LUBRICATING INGREDIENTS IN A LUBRICATING COMPOSITION
    • C10M177/00—Special methods of preparation of lubricating compositions; Chemical modification by after-treatment of components or of the whole of a lubricating composition, not covered by other classes
    • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C10—PETROLEUM, GAS OR COKE INDUSTRIES; TECHNICAL GASES CONTAINING CARBON MONOXIDE; FUELS; LUBRICANTS; PEAT
    • C10G—CRACKING HYDROCARBON OILS; PRODUCTION OF LIQUID HYDROCARBON MIXTURES, e.g. BY DESTRUCTIVE HYDROGENATION, OLIGOMERISATION, POLYMERISATION; RECOVERY OF HYDROCARBON OILS FROM OIL-SHALE, OIL-SAND, OR GASES; REFINING MIXTURES MAINLY CONSISTING OF HYDROCARBONS; REFORMING OF NAPHTHA; MINERAL WAXES
    • C10G2300/00—Aspects relating to hydrocarbon processing covered by groups C10G1/00 - C10G99/00
    • C10G2300/10—Feedstock materials
    • C10G2300/1088—Olefins
    • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C10—PETROLEUM, GAS OR COKE INDUSTRIES; TECHNICAL GASES CONTAINING CARBON MONOXIDE; FUELS; LUBRICANTS; PEAT
    • C10G—CRACKING HYDROCARBON OILS; PRODUCTION OF LIQUID HYDROCARBON MIXTURES, e.g. BY DESTRUCTIVE HYDROGENATION, OLIGOMERISATION, POLYMERISATION; RECOVERY OF HYDROCARBON OILS FROM OIL-SHALE, OIL-SAND, OR GASES; REFINING MIXTURES MAINLY CONSISTING OF HYDROCARBONS; REFORMING OF NAPHTHA; MINERAL WAXES
    • C10G2300/00—Aspects relating to hydrocarbon processing covered by groups C10G1/00 - C10G99/00
    • C10G2300/20—Characteristics of the feedstock or the products
    • C10G2300/30—Physical properties of feedstocks or products
    • C10G2300/302—Viscosity
    • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C10—PETROLEUM, GAS OR COKE INDUSTRIES; TECHNICAL GASES CONTAINING CARBON MONOXIDE; FUELS; LUBRICANTS; PEAT
    • C10G—CRACKING HYDROCARBON OILS; PRODUCTION OF LIQUID HYDROCARBON MIXTURES, e.g. BY DESTRUCTIVE HYDROGENATION, OLIGOMERISATION, POLYMERISATION; RECOVERY OF HYDROCARBON OILS FROM OIL-SHALE, OIL-SAND, OR GASES; REFINING MIXTURES MAINLY CONSISTING OF HYDROCARBONS; REFORMING OF NAPHTHA; MINERAL WAXES
    • C10G2300/00—Aspects relating to hydrocarbon processing covered by groups C10G1/00 - C10G99/00
    • C10G2300/20—Characteristics of the feedstock or the products
    • C10G2300/30—Physical properties of feedstocks or products
    • C10G2300/304—Pour point, cloud point, cold flow properties
    • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C10—PETROLEUM, GAS OR COKE INDUSTRIES; TECHNICAL GASES CONTAINING CARBON MONOXIDE; FUELS; LUBRICANTS; PEAT
    • C10G—CRACKING HYDROCARBON OILS; PRODUCTION OF LIQUID HYDROCARBON MIXTURES, e.g. BY DESTRUCTIVE HYDROGENATION, OLIGOMERISATION, POLYMERISATION; RECOVERY OF HYDROCARBON OILS FROM OIL-SHALE, OIL-SAND, OR GASES; REFINING MIXTURES MAINLY CONSISTING OF HYDROCARBONS; REFORMING OF NAPHTHA; MINERAL WAXES
    • C10G2300/00—Aspects relating to hydrocarbon processing covered by groups C10G1/00 - C10G99/00
    • C10G2300/70—Catalyst aspects
    • C10G2300/703—Activation
    • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C10—PETROLEUM, GAS OR COKE INDUSTRIES; TECHNICAL GASES CONTAINING CARBON MONOXIDE; FUELS; LUBRICANTS; PEAT
    • C10G—CRACKING HYDROCARBON OILS; PRODUCTION OF LIQUID HYDROCARBON MIXTURES, e.g. BY DESTRUCTIVE HYDROGENATION, OLIGOMERISATION, POLYMERISATION; RECOVERY OF HYDROCARBON OILS FROM OIL-SHALE, OIL-SAND, OR GASES; REFINING MIXTURES MAINLY CONSISTING OF HYDROCARBONS; REFORMING OF NAPHTHA; MINERAL WAXES
    • C10G2400/00—Products obtained by processes covered by groups C10G9/00 - C10G69/14
    • C10G2400/10—Lubricating oil
    • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C10—PETROLEUM, GAS OR COKE INDUSTRIES; TECHNICAL GASES CONTAINING CARBON MONOXIDE; FUELS; LUBRICANTS; PEAT
    • C10M—LUBRICATING COMPOSITIONS; USE OF CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES EITHER ALONE OR AS LUBRICATING INGREDIENTS IN A LUBRICATING COMPOSITION
    • C10M2205/00—Organic macromolecular hydrocarbon compounds or fractions, whether or not modified by oxidation as ingredients in lubricant compositions
    • C10M2205/02—Organic macromolecular hydrocarbon compounds or fractions, whether or not modified by oxidation as ingredients in lubricant compositions containing acyclic monomers
    • C10M2205/028—Organic macromolecular hydrocarbon compounds or fractions, whether or not modified by oxidation as ingredients in lubricant compositions containing acyclic monomers containing aliphatic monomers having more than four carbon atoms
    • C10M2205/0285—Organic macromolecular hydrocarbon compounds or fractions, whether or not modified by oxidation as ingredients in lubricant compositions containing acyclic monomers containing aliphatic monomers having more than four carbon atoms used as base material
    • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C10—PETROLEUM, GAS OR COKE INDUSTRIES; TECHNICAL GASES CONTAINING CARBON MONOXIDE; FUELS; LUBRICANTS; PEAT
    • C10N—INDEXING SCHEME ASSOCIATED WITH SUBCLASS C10M RELATING TO LUBRICATING COMPOSITIONS
    • C10N2040/00—Specified use or application for which the lubricating composition is intended
    • C10N2040/02—Bearings
    • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C10—PETROLEUM, GAS OR COKE INDUSTRIES; TECHNICAL GASES CONTAINING CARBON MONOXIDE; FUELS; LUBRICANTS; PEAT
    • C10N—INDEXING SCHEME ASSOCIATED WITH SUBCLASS C10M RELATING TO LUBRICATING COMPOSITIONS
    • C10N2040/00—Specified use or application for which the lubricating composition is intended
    • C10N2040/04—Oil-bath; Gear-boxes; Automatic transmissions; Traction drives
    • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C10—PETROLEUM, GAS OR COKE INDUSTRIES; TECHNICAL GASES CONTAINING CARBON MONOXIDE; FUELS; LUBRICANTS; PEAT
    • C10N—INDEXING SCHEME ASSOCIATED WITH SUBCLASS C10M RELATING TO LUBRICATING COMPOSITIONS
    • C10N2040/00—Specified use or application for which the lubricating composition is intended
    • C10N2040/12—Gas-turbines
    • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C10—PETROLEUM, GAS OR COKE INDUSTRIES; TECHNICAL GASES CONTAINING CARBON MONOXIDE; FUELS; LUBRICANTS; PEAT
    • C10N—INDEXING SCHEME ASSOCIATED WITH SUBCLASS C10M RELATING TO LUBRICATING COMPOSITIONS
    • C10N2040/00—Specified use or application for which the lubricating composition is intended
    • C10N2040/25—Internal-combustion engines
    • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C10—PETROLEUM, GAS OR COKE INDUSTRIES; TECHNICAL GASES CONTAINING CARBON MONOXIDE; FUELS; LUBRICANTS; PEAT
    • C10N—INDEXING SCHEME ASSOCIATED WITH SUBCLASS C10M RELATING TO LUBRICATING COMPOSITIONS
    • C10N2070/00—Specific manufacturing methods for lubricant compositions

Definitions

  • the invention relates to lubricant compositions comprising PAO and/or HVI-PAO basestock made by contacting mixed feed alpha-olefms with a catalyst comprising a metallocene.
  • Viscosity Index is an empirical, unitless number which indicates the rate of change in the viscosity of an oil within a given temperature range. Fluids exhibiting a relatively large change in viscosity with temperature are said to have a low viscosity index. A low VI oil, for example, will thin out at elevated temperatures faster than a high VI oil.
  • the high VI oil is more desirable because it has higher viscosity at higher temperature, which translates into better or thicker lubrication film and better protection of the contacting machine elements, hi another aspect, as the oil operating temperature decreases, the viscosity of a high VI oil will not increase as much as the viscosity of a low VI oil. This is advantageous because the excessive high viscosity of the low VI oil will decrease the efficiency of the operating machine.
  • high VI oil has performance advantages in both high and low temperature operation.
  • VI is determined according to ASTM method D 2270-93 [1998].
  • VI is related to kinematic viscosities measured at 4O 0 C and 100 0 C using ASTM Method D 445.
  • PAOs comprise a class of hydrocarbons manufactured by the catalytic oligomerization (polymerization to low molecular weight products) of linear ce-olefins (LAOs) typically ranging from 1-hexene to 1-octadecene, more typically from 1-octene to 1-dodecene, with 1-decene as the most common and often preferred material.
  • LAOs linear ce-olefins
  • Such fluids are described, for example, in U.S. Patent 6,824,671 and patents referenced therein, although polymers of lower olefins such as ethylene and propylene may also be used, especially copolymers of ethylene with higher olefins, as described in U.S. Patent 4,956,122 or 4,990,709 and the patents referred to therein.
  • High viscosity index polyalpha-olefin prepared by, for instance, polymerization of alpha-oleflns using reduced metal oxide catalysts (e.g., chromium) are described, for instance, in U.S. Patent Nos. 4,827,064; 4,827,073; 4,990,771; 5,012,020; and 5,264,642.
  • HVI-PAOs are characterized by having a high viscosity index (VI) of about 130 and above, more preferably 150 and above, still more preferably 160 and above, yet still more preferably 200 and above, and one or more of the following characteristics: a branch ratio of less than 0.19, a weight average molecular weight of between 300 and 45,000, a number average molecular weight of between 300 and 18,000, a molecular weight distribution of between 1 and 5, and pour point below -15°C. Measured in carbon number, these molecules range from C 30 to C 1300 . Viscosities of the HVI-PAO oligomers measured at 100°C range from 3 centistokes ("cSt") to 15,000 cSt.
  • cSt centistokes
  • HVI-PAOs have been used as basestocks in engine and industrial lubricant formulations. See also U.S. Patent Nos. 4,180,575; 4,827,064; 4,827,073; 4,912,272; 4,990,771; 5,012,020; 5,264,642; 6,087,307; 6,180,575; WO 03/09136; WO 2003071369A; U.S. Patent Application No. 2005/0059563; WO 00/58423; and Lubrication Engineers, 55/8, 45 (1999); and have recently been found to be useful for industrial oil and grease formulations (e.g., U.S. Patent Application No. (yet to be assigned) [Attorney Docket No. 2005B085, filed June 29, 2005].
  • HVI-PAOs Another advantageous property of these HVI-PAOs is that, while lower molecular weight unsaturated oligomers are typically and preferably hydrogenated to produce thermally and oxidatively stable materials, higher molecular weight unsaturated HVI-PAO oligomers useful as lubricant are sufficiently thermally and oxidatively stable to be utilized without hydrogenation and, optionally, may be so employed.
  • polyalpha-olefin includes PAOs and
  • HVI-PAOs HVI-PAOs.
  • PAO may include HVI-PAOs or it may be used to distinguish non-HVI-PAOs from HVI-PAOs.
  • PAO when PAO is used alone, it implies the products have properties similar to the fluids made from conventional polymerization process using BF 3 or AlCl 3 or their modified versions, as described in U.S. Pat. 6,824,671 and references therein.
  • Polyalpha-olefins of different viscosity grades are known to be useful in synthetic and semi-synthetic lubricants and grease formulations.
  • a mixture of about 10 to 40 wt. % 1-decene and about 60 to 90 wt. % 1-dodecene and are co-oligomerized in the presence of an alcohol promoter Preferably 1-decene is added portion-wise to the single oligomerization reactor containing 1-dodecene and a pressurized atmosphere of boron trifluoride.
  • PAO characterized by a kinematic viscosity of from about 4 to about 6 at 100°C, a Noack weight loss of from about 4 % to about 9 %, a viscosity index of from about 130 to about 145, and a pour point in the range of from about -60°C to about -5O 0 C. See also U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,950,822; 6,646,174; 6,824,671, 5,382,739 and U.S. Patent Application No. 2004/0033908.
  • these copolymers or co-oligomers produced by conventional Friedel-Crafts catalysts usually are characterized by having extra relatively short branches, such as methyl and ethyl short side chains, even though the feed olefins do not contain these short branches. This is because the Friedel-Crafts catalyst partially isomerizes the starting alpha-olefins and the intermediates formed during the oligomerization. The presence of short chain branches is less desirable for superior lubricant properties, including VI and volatility. In contrast, the copolymers described in this invention will not have extraneous short chain branches. If the feed is propylene and 1-dodecene, the predominant side chain in the polymers will be methyl and n-C 10 H 23 side chains.
  • the oligomers will not have extra ethyl, propyl, butyl, etc. side chains that are present in non-metallocene (e.g. Friedel- Crafts) methods,.
  • the reduced chromium oxide on silica gel catalyst polymerized the lower alpha-olefins, such as 1-butene or 1-hexene, at a significantly higher rate than the alpha-olefins of 1-decene, 1-dodecene or larger alpha-olefins [see comparative examples in Example section].
  • the copolymer tends to be more blocky or more inhomogeneous in a conventional synthesis process. Both are detrimental to the product VI and low temperature properties.
  • Ziegler or Ziegler-Natta type catalysts have also been , reported to copolymerize mixed alpha-olefins. Examples are US patents 4,132,663, 5,188,724 and 4,163,712.
  • Ziegler or Ziegler- Natta catalysts can only produce polymers of very high molecular weights. As a result, the products are used as plastics and additives, but are not suitable as high performance base stocks. Furthermore, according to all literature reports, Ziegler or Ziegler-Natta catalysts usually have higher reactivities toward smaller alpha-olefins, such as propylene, 1-butene, 1-pentene or 1-hexene, than toward larger alpha-olefins, such as 1-decene, 1-dodecene, or larger 1 -olefins (reference Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics, 195, 2805 (1994) or 195, 3889 (1994)).
  • alpha-olefins such as propylene, 1-butene, 1-pentene or 1-hexene
  • the present inventors have discovered an unanticipated method of producing a uniform PAO and/or HVI-PAO product by contacting a mixed feed of LAOs of varying carbon numbers with an activated metallocene catalyst.
  • the invention is directed to an unproved process for producing
  • PAOs and HVI-PAOs which employs contacting a feed comprising a mixture of LAOs with an activated metallocene catalyst, optionally after hydrogenation, to produce liquid polymers with superior properties for use as lubricant components or as functional fluids.
  • This invention is also directed to a copolymer composition made from at least two alpha-olefins of C 3 to C 30 range and having monomers randomly distributed in the polymers. It is preferred that the average carbon number, as defined herein, is at least 4.1.
  • ethylene and propylene, if present in the feed are present in the amount of less than 50 wt% individually or preferably less than 50 wt% combined.
  • the copolymers of the invention can be isotactic, atactic, syndiotactic polymers or any other form of appropriate tacticity.
  • the mixed feed LAOs comprise at least two and up to 26 different linear alpha-olefins selected from C 3 to C 30 linear alpha-olefins.
  • the mixed feed LAO is obtained from an ethylene growth process using an aluminum catalyst or a metallocene catalyst.
  • the alpha-olefins can be chosen from any component from a conventional LAO production facility together with another
  • LAO available from a refinery or chemical plant, including propylene, 1-butene,
  • the alpha-olefins can be chosen from the alpha-olefins produced from Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (as reported in U.S.
  • the activated metallocene catalyst can be simple metallocenes, substituted metallocenes or bridged metallocene catalysts activated or promoted by, for instance, MAO or a non-coordinating anion.
  • Figure 1 illustrates the relationship of pour point versus kinematic viscosity for embodiments according to the present invention in comparison with a product produced using a pure C 10 feed.
  • Figure 2 illustrates the relationship of viscosity index (VI) versus kinematic viscosity for embodiments according to the present invention compared with a product produced using a pure Ci 0 feed.
  • Figures 3 and 4 show the mole fraction of an olefin component in the product versus the mole fraction of same monomer in the feed for examples according to the present invention.
  • Figure 5 is a comparison of pour points between the prior art and embodiments of the invention.
  • a feed comprising a mixture of LAOs selected from C 3 to C 30 LAOs is contacted with an activated metallocene catalyst under oligomerization conditions to provide a liquid product, suitable for use in lubricant components or as functional fluids, optionally after hydrogenation.
  • This invention is also directed to a copolymer composition made from at least two alpha-olefins of C 3 to C 30 range and having monomers randomly distributed in the polymers.
  • the phrase "at least two alpha-olefins” will be understood to mean “at least two different alpha-olefins” (and similarly "at least three alpha-olefins” means “at least three different alpha-olefins", and so forth).
  • the average carbon number (defined herein below) of said at least two alpha-olefins in said feed is at least 4.1.
  • the amount of ethylene and propylene in said feed is less than 50 wt% individually or preferably less than 50 wt% combined.
  • a still more preferred embodiment comprises a feed having both of the aforementioned preferred embodiments, i.e., a feed having an average carbon number of at least 4.1 and wherein the amount of ethylene and propylene is less than 50 wt% individually.
  • the product obtained is an essentially random liquid copolymer comprising the at least two alpha-olefins.
  • essentially random is meant that one of ordinary skill in the art would consider the products to be a random copolymer. Other characterizations of randomness, some of which are preferred or more preferred, are provided herein. Likewise the term “liquid” will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, but more preferred characterizations of the term are provided herein.
  • mixture of LAOs is meant that at least two different linear alpha-olefins are present in the feed and up to 28 different linear alpha-olefms are present in the feed. It is a surprising discovery of the present invention that the rate of incorporation of monomers into the polymer backbone is substantially the same regardless of the carbon number of the linear alpha-olefin, and it is further a surprising discovery that the incorporation of monomers in the polymer chain is essentially random. This allows for a tremendous advantage in selecting the feed composition to achieve a preselected target product. This also allows the advantage of producing a new copolymer composition with a substantially random monomer distribution, resulting in superior viscometric properties at both high and low temperature range.
  • the feed will comprise anywhere from 2 to 28 different LAOs.
  • the feed may comprise at least two, or at least three, or at least four, or at least five, or at least six, or at least seven, or at least eight, and so on, different feeds.
  • the embodiments may be further characterized by having no single LAO present in an amount greater than 80 wt%, 60 wt %, 50 wt %, or 49 wt %, or 40 wt %, or 33 wt %, or 30 wt %, or 25 wt %, or 20 wt %.
  • the amounts of LAO present in a feed will be specified herein as percent by weight of the entire amount of LAO in the feed, unless otherwise specified.
  • the feed may also comprise an inert (with respect to the oligomerization reaction in question) material, such as a carrier, a solvent, or other olefin components present that is not an LAO.
  • an inert (with respect to the oligomerization reaction in question) material such as a carrier, a solvent, or other olefin components present that is not an LAO.
  • examples are propane, n-butane, iso-butane, cis- or trans-2-butenes, iso-butenes, and the like, that maybe present with propylene or with 1-butene feed.
  • Other examples are the impurity internal olefins or vinylidene olefins that are present in the LAO feed.
  • the amount of ethylene in said feed be at least less than 50 wt% and generally much less than that, e.g., less than 5 wt%, more preferably less than 4 wt% or less than 3 wt% or less than 2 wt%, or less than 1 wt%.
  • the amount of both ethylene and propylene, on an individual basis should be less than 50 wt% and more preferably the combination of ethylene and propylene should be less than 50 wt%, more preferably less than 40 wt%, or 30 wt%, or 20 wt%, or 10 wt%, or 5 wt%.
  • feeds may be advantageously selected from
  • LAOs C 4 to C 24 LAOs, C 5 to C 24 , C 4 to C 16 LAOs, C 5 . to C 18 , C 5 to C 16 , C 6 to C 20 LAOs, C 4 to C 14 LAOs, C 5 to C 16 , C 5 to C 16 , C 6 to C 16 LAOs, C 6 to C 18 LAOs, C 6 to C 14 LAOs, among other possible LAO feed sources, such as any lower limit listed herein to any upper limit listed herein.
  • the feed will comprise at least one monomer selected from propylene, 1-butene, 1- pentene, 1-hexene to 1-heptene and at least one monomer selected from C 12 -C 18 alpha-olefins.
  • one monomer is selected from C 8 and C 10 alpha-olefins.
  • a preferred embodiment is a feed comprising 1-hexene and 1-dodecene, 1- tetradecene, and mixtures thereof.
  • Another preferred embodiment is a feed comprising 1-butene and 1-dodecene, 1-tetradecene, and mixtures thereof.
  • Another preferred embodiment is a feed comprising 1-hexene, 1-decene, 1- dodecene and 1-tetradecene, and mixtures thereof.
  • Another preferred embodiment is a feed comprising 1-hexene and 1-octene, 1-dodecene and 1-tetradecene, and mixtures thereof.
  • Another preferred embodiment is a feed comprising 1-butene and 1-hexene and 1-dodecene, 1-tetradecene, and mixtures thereof.
  • a particularly advantaged feedstock from the standpoint of supply and availability is 1-hexene. There are many source of 1-hexene. They are available from conventional LAO processes, and have recently been produced intentionally in high yield and cheaply from ethylene.
  • 1-Hexene is now available commercially from Fischer-Tropsch processes . Because of these diverse sources, there is advantage in using 1-hexene as one of the feeds. The presence of 1-hexene in the LAO feed from 0 to 95% is suitable.
  • 1-hexene is present in the feed in the amount of about 1 wt % or 10 wt% to about 85 wt% or less, 80 wt% or less, 75 wt% or less, 67 wt% or less, 60 wt % or less, 50 wt % or less, 40 wt % or less, 33 wt % or less, 30 wt % or less, 20 wt % or less, or 15 wt % or less as preferred embodiments.
  • 1- octene which can be produced selectively from 1-heptene isolated from Fischer- Tropsch synthesis, or from butadiene as described in WO 9210450.
  • alpha- olefins such as propylene or 1-butene or combinations thereof are also very advantageous because propylene and 1-butene are readily available from refinery or from petrochemical plants.
  • the source of propylene can be in pure form (as in chemical grade propylene or as in polymer grade propylene) or in PP stream (propane-propylene stream) or other appropriate forms.
  • the source of 1-butene can be in pure form (as in chemical grade 1-butene or as in polymer grade 1- butene) or in "BB stream” (butane-butene stream, such as Raffmate-1 or Raffinate-2 stream, as discussed, for instance, in U.S. Patent No. 5,859,159), or other appropriate form.
  • 1-Pentene can also be used as one of the advantaged feeds in the mixed feed.
  • This 1-pentene can be isolated from naphtha steam cracking unit, from other refinery sources, or from a Fischer-Tropsch synthesis process. Similar to 1-hexene, in embodiments the amount of propylene, 1-butene or 1- pentene can vary from 1 to 95% in the mixed feed, depending on the needs of the product properties.
  • the source of the LAO is advantageously from ethylene growth processes, as described in U.S. Patent Nos. 2,889,385; 4,935,569 (and numerous references cited therein); 6,444,867; and in Chapter 3 of Lappin and Sauer, Alpha- olefins Applications Handbook, Marcel Dekker, Inc., NY 1989.
  • the LAO made from this ethylene growth process contains only even-number olefins.
  • LAO containing both even- and odd-number olefins can also be made from steam cracking or thermal cracking of wax, such as petroleum wax, Fischer-Tropsch wax, or any other readily available hydrocarbon wax.
  • LAO can also be made in a Fischer-Tropsch synthesis process, as described in U.S. 5,185,378 or U.S. 6,673,845 and references therein. LAO made directly from syngas synthesis processes, which can produce significant amounts of C 3 -C 15 alpha-olefms, containing both even- and odd-number olefins.
  • LAO containing other inert components including saturated hydrocarbons, internal or vinylidene olefins or aromatic diluents can also be used as feed.
  • the LAO would be reacted to give polymer and inert components will be passed through the reactor unaffected.
  • the polymerization process is also a separation process.
  • feedstock comprises 1-butene.
  • a mixed feed comprising from 1 wt% to about 80 wt%, preferably 5 wt% to about 75 wt%, more preferably about 25 wt% to about 75 wt% is advantageous, particularly wherein the average carbon number of said feed is at least 4.1. It is particularly advantageous when the feed also comprises at least 20 wt% or 25 wt% to about 80 wt% or 75 wt% of at least one alpha-olef ⁇ n selected from C 8 to C 24 , C 10 to C 24 , C 12 to C 24 , preferably C 14 to C 18 alpha-olefins. [0039] It is preferred that the average carbon number of the feed is at least
  • Average carbon number refers to the average carbon number of the C 3 to C 30 alpha-olefins in the feed.
  • Another preferred embodiment is to select a mixed feed, which may be a mixed feed as described in any one of the aforementioned embodiments or as otherwise described herein, having an average carbon number of between about 4.1 carbon atoms and 14 carbon atoms, and more preferably from greater than 5 carbon atoms to less than 12 carbon atoms, and more preferably from greater than 5.5 carbon atoms to less than 11 carbon atoms.
  • eq. mo feed comprises equimolar amounts of even-numbered alpha-olefins from C 6 to C 18 .
  • AU of the average carbon numbers listed in Table A are preferred feeds, and preferred feeds also include a range of average carbon numbers from any lower amount listed in Table A to any higher amount listed in Table A.
  • a particular advantage of the present invention is that it allows for the production of a product that closely mirrors the properties of an oligomerization process using a single feed of 1-decene without actually using an appreciable amount of 1-decene or the commonly used 1-decene-equivalent,
  • the feed used in the present invention does not contain 1-decene, or contains 1-decene in an amount less than about 1 wt %, or less than about 5 wt %, or less than about 10 wt %, or less than about 20 wt %, or less than 30%, or less than 50%, or less than 60%, or less than 70%, and also an embodiment wherein the feed from one of these preferred embodiments not having an appreciable amount of 1-decene is used to produce a product having substantially similar properties as a product produced using a feed comprising substantially all 1- decene, or 90 wt % 1-decene.
  • Preferred embodiments include feeds where any one of 1-octene, 1-decene, and 1-dodecene is less then 70%, 50 wt %, or 40 wt %, or 33 wt %, or 30 wt %, or 25 wt %, or 20 wt %, or 10 wt %, or 5 wt %, and/or wherein the total of 1-octene, 1-decene, and 1-dodecene is present in the aforementioned amounts.
  • a feed may be taken directly from another process without laborious, time-consuming, and/or expensive isolation of one or more monomers.
  • a preferred embodiment is a feed used directly, with minimum isolation, from an ethylene growth process.
  • LAO processes produce C 6 to C 20 LAO with small amounts of C 20+ LAO.
  • each individual C 6 to C 18 LAO is isolated from the crude mixture by careful fractionation.
  • each LAO has it unique application. This fractionation step adds cost and complexicity to the LAO production.
  • the whole range of C 4 to C 20+ LAO directly from the oligomerization process can be used as feed, with only a separation of the light gases.
  • ethylene may be used as a
  • growth reagent to produce alpha-olefms which are low molecular weight polymers (oligomers) of the growth reagent.
  • Such reactions are described, for instance, in U.S. Patent Nos. 2,889,385; 4,935,569 (and numerous references cited therein); 6,444,867; and in Chapter 3 of Lappin and Sauer, Alpha-olefins Applications Handbook, Marcel Dekker, Inc., NY 1989.
  • the entire mixture of olefins produced by one of such processes comprising, for example, nine different alpha-olefin oligomers of ethylene having from 4 to 20 carbon atoms, may be used directly in the process of the present invention with minimum isolation of the bulk of the alpha-olefins but without the necessity of separating the each individual oligomer.
  • LAO linear alpha-olefins
  • other processes such as steam/thermal cracking of petroleum-based slack wax or more desirably from the steam/thermal cracking of wax derived from Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis as described in the paper "Gas-to-Liquids Technology Provides New Hope for Remote Fields” published in Lubricant World, October 2000, page 30.
  • FT Fischer-Tropsch
  • alpha-olefins ranging from C 5 to C 18 can be produced in high yields, as described in US Pat. Nos. 5,136,118; 5,146,002; and 5,208,403.
  • the wax derived from GTL process is the most desirable feed because of its high purity, lack of sulfur, nitrogen or other heteroatoms, and its low aromatics, naphthenics, and branched paraffins, content.
  • Tropsch synthesis using special catalysts usually cobalt or iron based FT catalysts, in combination with a synthesis gas with a low H 2 /CO ratio.
  • the mixture of alpha-olefins with only even carbon numbers or with both odd and even carbon numbers can be used with minimum separation as feed for this invention, or can be separated into different fractions. Fractions with no other special use can be used as feed in this invention process to yield high quality synthetic fluids. This approach provides a method to optimize total LAO value. Examples of the feed compositions are summarized in Table A.
  • the preferred feeds are chosen from C 3 - to C 7 alpha-olefins in combination with another olefin or olefins chosen firom C 12 to C 20 alpha-olefms.
  • This approach leaves out the C 8 and C 1O LAOs or uses only minimum amounts of them.
  • the C 8 and C 10 LAOs are usually in high demand from other applications, such as for use as co-monomers for polyethylene plastic synthesis or used in BF 3 or AlCl 3 -based oligomerization processes, which prefer 1-decene as feed. Or if C 8 and C 1 O alpha- olefms are available, then they can be added as part of the feed.
  • alpha-olef ⁇ ns containing branches that are at least two carbons away from the olefinic double bonds can also be used as one of the mixture components.
  • alpha-olefins include 4-methyl-l-pentene, or other slightly branched alpha-olefins produced from Fischer-Tropsch synthesis process or from wax-cracking process. These slightly branched alpha-olefins can be used together with the LAOs described above as feeds.
  • This improved process employs a catalyst system comprising a metallocene compound (Formula 1, below) together with an activator such as a non-coordinating anion (NCA) activator (Formula 2, below, is one example) or methylaluminoxane (MAO) (Formula 3, below).
  • an activator such as a non-coordinating anion (NCA) activator (Formula 2, below, is one example) or methylaluminoxane (MAO) (Formula 3, below).
  • catalyst system is defined herein to mean a catalyst precursor/activator pair, such as a metallocene/activator pair.
  • catalyst system When “catalyst system” is used to describe such a pair before activation, it means the unactivated catalyst (precatalyst) together with an activator and, optionally, a co-activator (such as a trialkyl aluminum compound).
  • a co-activator such as a trialkyl aluminum compound
  • it means the activated catalyst and the activator or other charge- balancing moiety.
  • this activated "catalyst system” may optionally comprise the co-activator and/or other charge-balancing moiety.
  • the metallocene is selected from one or more compounds according to Formula 1, above.
  • M is selected from Group 4 transition metals, preferably zirconium (Zr), hafnium (Hf) and titanium (Ti) 5 Ll and L2 are independently selected from cyclopentadienyl ("Cp"), indenyl, and fluorenyl, which may be substituted or unsubstituted, and which may be partially hydrogenated
  • A is an optional bridging group which if present, in preferred embodiments is selected from dialkylsilyl, dialkylmethyl, ethenyl (-CH 2 -CH 2 -), alkylethenyl (-CR 2 -CR 2 -), where alkyl can be independently hydrogen radical, C 1 to C 16 alkyl radical or phenyl, tolyl, xylyl radical and the like, and wherein each of the two X groups, X ?
  • R is an alkyl group, preferably selected from C 1 to C 5 straight or branched chain alkyl groups
  • hydrogen C 1 to C 16 alkyl or aryl groups, haloalkyl, and the like.
  • Usually relatively more highly substituted metallocenes give higher catalyst productivity and wider product viscosity ranges and are thus often more preferred.
  • substitution to the aforementioned ligand may be hydrocarbyl, substituted hydrocarbyl, halocarbyl, substituted halocarbyl, silylcarbyl, or germylcarbyl.
  • substitution may also be within the ring giving heterocyclopentadienyl ligands, heteroindenyl ligands or heterotetrahydoindenyl ligands, each of which can additional be substituted or unsubstituted.
  • hydrocarbyl radical is defined to be C 1 -C 100 radicals, that may be linear, branched, or cyclic, and when cyclic, aromatic or non-aromatic, and include substituted hydrocarbyl radicals, halocarbyl radicals, and substituted halocarbyl radicals, silylcarbyl radicals, and germylcarbyl radicals as these terms are defined below.
  • Halocarbyl radicals are radicals in which one or more hydrocarbyl hydrogen atoms have been substituted with at least one halogen (e.g. F, Cl, Br, I) or halogen-containing group (e.g. CF 3 ).
  • halogen e.g. F, Cl, Br, I
  • halogen-containing group e.g. CF 3
  • Silylcarbyl radicals are groups in which the silyl functionality is bonded directly to the indicated atom or atoms.
  • Examples include SiH 3 , SiH 2 R*, SiHR* 2 , SiR* 3 , SiH 2 (OR*), SiH(OR*) 2 , Si(OR*) 3 , SiH 2 (NR* 2 ), SiH(NR* 2 ) 2 , Si(NR* 2 ) 3 , and the like where R* is independently a hydrocarbyl or halocarbyl radical and two or more R* may join together to form a substituted or unsubstituted saturated, partially unsaturated or aromatic cyclic or polycyclic ring structure.
  • Germylcarbyl radicals are groups in which the germyl functionality is bonded directly to the indicated atom or atoms. Examples include GeH 3 , GeH 2 R*, GeHR* 2 , GeR * 3 , GeH 2 (OR*), GeH(OR*) 2 , Ge(OR*) 3 , GeH 2 (NR* 2 ), GeH(NR* 2 ) 2 , Ge(NR* 2 ) 3 , and the like where R* is independently a hydrocarbyl or halocarbyl radical and two or more R* may join together to form a substituted or unsubstituted saturated, partially unsaturated or aromatic cyclic or polycyclic ring structure.
  • Polar radicals or polar groups are groups in which the heteroatom functionality is bonded directly to the indicated atom or atoms. They include heteroatoms of groups 1-17 of the Periodic Table either alone or connected to other elements by covalent or other interactions such as ionic, van der Waals forces, or hydrogen bonding.
  • Examples of functional heteroatom containing groups include carboxylic acid, acid halide, carboxylic ester, carboxylic salt, carboxylic anhydride, aldehyde and their chalcogen (Group 14) analogues, alcohol and phenol, ether, peroxide and hydroperoxide, carboxylic amide, hydrazide and imide, amidine and other nitrogen analogues of amides, nitrile, amine and imine, azo, nitro, other nitrogen compounds, sulfur acids, selenium acids, thiols, sulfides, sulfoxides, sulfones, phosphines, phosphates, other phosphorus compounds, silanes, boranes, borates, alanes, aluminates.
  • chalcogen Group 14
  • Functional groups may also be taken broadly to include organic polymer supports or inorganic support material such as alumina, and silica.
  • Preferred examples of polar groups include NR* 2 , OR*, SeR*, TeR*, PR* 2 , AsR* 2 , SbR* 2 , SR*, BR* 2 , SnR* 3 , PbR* 3 and the like where R* is independently a hydrocarbyl, substituted hydrocarbyl, halocarbyl or substituted halocarbyl radical as defined above and two R* may join together to form a substituted or unsubstituted saturated, partially unsaturated or aromatic cyclic or polycyclic ring structure.
  • the hydrocarbyl radical is independently selected from methyl, ethyl, ethenyl and isomers of propyl, butyl, pentyl, hexyl, heptyl, octyl, nonyl, decyl, undecyl, dodecyl, tridecyl, tetradecyl, pentadecyl, hexadecyl, heptadecyl, octadecyl, nonadecyl, eicosyl, heneicosyl, docosyl, tricosyl, tetracosyl, pentacosyl, hexacosyl, heptacosyl, octacosyl, nonacosyl, triacontyl, propenyl, butenyl, pentenyl, hexenyl, heptenyl, octenyl, nonenyl,
  • examples include phenyl, methylphenyl, dimethylphenyl, ethylphenyl, diethylphenyl, propylphenyl, dipropylphenyl, benzyl, methylbenzyl, naphthyl, anthracenyl, cyclopentyl, cyclopentenyl, cyclohexyl, cyclohexenyl, methylcyclohexyl, cycloheptyl, cycloheptenyl, norbornyl, norbornenyl, adamantyl and the like.
  • Alkyl, alkenyl and alkynyl radicals listed include all isomers including where appropriate cyclic isomers, for example, butyl includes n-butyl, 2- methylpropyl, 1-methylpropyl, tert-butyl, and cyclobutyl (and analogous substituted cyclopropyls); pentyl includes n-pentyl, cyclopentyl, 1-methylbutyl, 2- methylbutyl, 3-methylbutyl, 1-ethylpropyl, and neopentyl (and analogous substituted cyclobutyls and cyclopropyls); butenyl includes E and Z forms of 1- butenyl, 2-butenyl, 3-butenyl, 1 -methyl- 1 -propenyl, l-methyl-2-propenyl,
  • Cyclic compound having substitutions include all isomer forms, for example, methylphenyl would include ortho-methylphenyl, meta- methylphenyl and para-methylphenyl; dimethylphenyl would include 2,3- dimethylphenyl, 2,4-dimethylphenyl, 2,5-dimethylphenyl, 2,6-diphenylmethyl, 3,4-dimethylphenyl, and 3,5-dimethylphenyl.
  • a similar numbering and nomenclature scheme is used for heteroindenyl as illustrated below where Z and Q independently represent the heteroatoms O, S, Se, or Te, or heteroatom groups, NR, PR', AsR', or SbR where R is hydrogen, or a hydrocarbyl, substituted hydrocarbyl, halocarbyl, substituted halocarbyl, silylcarbyl, or germylcarbyl substituent.
  • the number scheme shown below is for heteroindenyl ligands that are bridged to another ligand via a bridging group.
  • Examples include: Examples include: Examples include: Examples include: Examples include: Examples include: Examples include: Examples include: Examples include: Examples include: Examples include: Examples include: Examples include: Examples include: Examples include: Examples include: Examples include: Examples include: Examples include: Examples include: Examples include:
  • a "ring heteroatom” is a heteroatom that is within a cyclic ring structure.
  • a “heteroatom substituent” is heteroatom containing group that is directly bonded to a ring structure through the heteroatom.
  • a “bridging heteroatom substituent” is a heteroatom or heteroatom group that is directly bonded to two different ring structures through the heteroatom.
  • the terms “ring heteroatom”, “heteroatom substituent”, and “bridging heteroatom substituent” are illustrated below where Z and R are as defined above. It should be noted that a “heteroatom substituent” can be a “bridging heteroatom substituent” when R 1 is additionally defined as the ligand "A”.
  • heteroatom substituent "heteroatom substituent" "bridging heteroatom substituent”
  • a "ring carbon atom” is a carbon atom that is part of a cyclic ring structure.
  • an indenyl ligand has nine ring carbon atoms; a cyclopentadienyl ligand has five ring carbon atoms.
  • Transition metal compounds have symmetry elements and belong to symmetry groups. These elements and groups are well established and can be referenced from Chemical Applications of Group Theory (2nd Edition) by F. Albert Cotton, Wiley-Interscience, 1971. Pseudo-symmetry, such as a pseudo C 2 -axis of symmetry refers to the same symmetry operation, however, the substituents on the ligand frame do not need to be identical, but of similar size and steric bulk.
  • Substituents of similar size are typically within 4 atoms of each other, and of similar shape.
  • methyl, ethyl, n-propyl, ra-butyl and zso-butyl substituents e.g. C 1 -C 4 primary bonded substituents
  • iso- propyl, sec-butyl, 1-methylbutyl, 1-ethylbutyl and 1-methylpentyl substituents e.g. C 3 -C 6 secondary bonded substituents
  • a compound with a pseudo C 2 -axis of symmetry could have for example, a Me 2 Si, MeEtSi or MePhSi bridging ligand, and still be considered to have a pseudo C 2 -axis of symmetry given the appropriate remaining ligand structure.
  • oligomer refers to compositions having 2-75 mer units and the term polymer refers to compositions having 76 or more mer units.
  • a mer is defined as a unit of an oligomer or polymer that originally corresponded to the olefin(s) used in the oligomerization or polymerization reaction.
  • the mer of polydecene would be decene.
  • the metallocene compounds (pre-catalysts), useful herein are preferably cyclopentadienyl derivatives of titanium, zirconium and hafnium.
  • useful titanocenes, zirconocenes and hafnocenes may be represented by the following formulae 4 and 5:
  • M is the metal center, and is a Group 4 metal preferably Titanium, zirconium or hafnium, preferably zirconium or hafnium;
  • Cp and Cp* are the same or different cyclopentadienyl rings substituted with from zero to four or five substituent groups S", each substituent group S" being, independently, a radical group which is a hydrocarbyl, substituted hydrocarbyl, halocarbyl, substituted halocarbyl, silylcarbyl or germylcarbyl, or Cp and Cp* are the same or different cyclopentadienyl rings in which any two adjacent S" groups are joined to form a substituted or unsubstituted, saturated, partially unsaturated, or aromatic cyclic or polycyclic substituent;
  • A' is a bridging group;
  • X a and X b are, independently, hydride radicals, hydrocarbyl radicals, substituted hydrocarbyl radicals, halocarbyl radicals, substituted halocarbyl radicals, silylcarbyl radicals, substituted silylcarbyl radicals, germylcarbyl radicals, or substituted germylcarbyl radicals; or both X are joined and bound to the metal atom to form a metallacycle ring containing from about 3 to about 20 carbon atoms; or both together can be an olefin, diolefin or aryne ligand; or when Lewis- acid activators, such as methylaluminoxane or trialkylaluminum or trialkylboron, etc., which are capable of donating a hydrocarbyl ligand as described above to the transition metal component, are used, both X may, independently, be a halogen, alkoxide, aryloxide, amide, phosphide or
  • the metallocene is racemic which means in a preferred embodiment, that the compounds represented by formula (4) have no plane of symmetry containing the metal center, M; and have a C 2 -axis of symmetry or pseudo C 2 -axis of symmetry through the metal center.
  • C 1 metallocenes can also be used for this invention. All these catalysts usually produce polyalpha-olefins with high degree of isotacticity or highly isotactic polymers. See J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1988, 110, 6225 for a review of the effect of catalyst structure on polymer tacticity, In addition to catalyst structures, the degree of isotacticity depends on other factors, such as catalyst purity, ligand types, reaction conditions, etc. The polymers with various degrees of tacticity are useful as synthetic lube base stocks or functional fluids.
  • the metallocene is the meso form which means that the compounds represented by formula (4) have plane of symmetry containing the metal center, M.
  • the metallocenes containing a C 2v symmetry are also suitable for this application.
  • This class of catalysts usually produces atactic polyalpha-olefms.
  • metallocene catalysts without any bridging between the cyclopentadienyl ligands, as in formula (5) also produce atactic polyalpha-olefins.
  • the metallocenes with C s symmetry or minor variations thereof can also be used for this invention.
  • the polyalpha-olefins can be made from at least two alpha-olefins mixture using any one class of the catalysts to produce isotactic, atactic or syndiotactic polymer or combinations of these different tacticities in varying amounts.
  • the PAO products made from mixed alpha-olefm feeds and with predominantly isotactic, atactic or syndiotactic compositions or combinations of these different tacticities in varying amounts all have superior VI and low temperature properties.
  • metallocene catalysts differ from conventional Ziegler-Natta or supported metal oxide on silica gel catalysts. These conventional catalysts usually polymerize smaller olefins, e.g., C 3 or C 4 , much faster than the larger LAOs, such as C 12 , C 14 , etc. This is not the case for the metallocene catalysts of the present invention, where the reactivities of C 3 and C 18 alpha-olefins are relatively similar.
  • Table B depicts representative constituent moieties for the metallocene components of formulas 4 and 5. The list is for illustrative purposes only and should not be construed to be limiting in any way. A number of final components may be formed by permuting all possible combinations of the constituent moieties with each other.
  • hydrocarbyl radicals including alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, cycloalkyl, cycloalkenyl, cycloalkynyl and aromatic radicals are disclosed in this application the term includes all isomers.
  • butyl includes n-butyl, 2-methylpropyl, 1-methylpropyl, tert-butyl, and cyclobutyl; pentyl includes n-pentyl, 1-methylbutyl, 2-methylbutyl, 3-methylbutyl, 1- ethylpropyl, neopentyl, cyclopentyl and methylcyclobutyl; butenyl includes E and Z forms of 1 -butenyl, 2-butenyl, 3-butenyl, 1 -methyl- 1-propenyl, l-methyl-2- propenyl, 2-methyl- 1-propenyl and 2-methyl-2-propenyl.
  • propylcyclopentadienyl include n-propylcyclopentadienyl, isopropylcyclopentadienyl and cyclopropylcyclopentadienyl.
  • the ligands or groups illustrated in Table B include all isomeric forms.
  • dimethylcyclopentadienyl includes 1,2-dimethylcyclopentadienyl and 1,3-dimethylcyclopentadienyl; methylindenyl includes 1 -methylindenyl, 2-methylindenyl, 3 -methylindenyl, 4-methylindenyl, 5- methylindenyl, 6-methylindenyl and 7-methylindenyl; methylethylphenyl includes ortho-methylethylphenyl, meta-methylethylphenyl and para-methylethylphenyl.
  • Examples of specific invention catalyst precursors take the following formula where some components are listed in Table B. To illustrate members of the transition metal component, select any combination of the species listed in Tables B.
  • the words "silyl” and “silylene” are used interchangeably, and represent a diradical species.
  • "ethylene” refers to a 1,2-ethylene linkage and is distinguished from ethene-l,l-diyl.
  • "ethylene” and "1,2- ethylene” are used interchangeably.
  • the bridge position on the cyclopentadienyl-type ring is always considered the 1- position.
  • the numbering scheme previous defined for the indenyl ring is used to indicate the bridge position; if a number is not specified, it is assumed that the bridge to the indenyl ligand is in the one position.
  • Cp is the same as Cp* and is a substituted or unsubstituted cyclopentadienyl, indenyl or tetrahydroindenyl ligand or fluorenyl.
  • Cp is different from Cp* and is a substituted or unsubstituted cyclopentadienyl, indenyl or tetrahydroindenyl ligand or fluorenyl.
  • Preferred metallocene compounds which, according to the present invention, provide catalyst systems, which are specific to the production of poly- ⁇ -olefins having high catalyst productivity and convert C 3 to C 3 o alpha-olefins with comparable reactivities.
  • These compounds can have any one of the symmetry groups classified as C 2 , pseudo-C 2 , C 2V5 or C s symmetry, and include the racemic and meso versions of: bis(indenyl)zirconium dichloride, bis(indenyl)zirconium dimethyl, bis(methylindenyl)zirconium dichloride, bis(methylindenyl)zirconium dimethyl, bis(dimethylindenyl)zirconium dichloride, bis(dimethylindenyl)zirconium dimethyl, bis(alkyllindenyl)zirconium dichloride, bis(alkylindenyl)zirconium dimethyl, bis(dialkylindenyl)zirconium dichloride, bis(dialkylindenyl)zirconium dimethyl, dimethylsilylbis(indenyl) zirconium dichloride, dimethylsilylbis(indenyl) zirconium dimethyl, diphenylsilyl
  • Another set of preferred metallocene catalysts include substituted unbridged Hs(R 1 ,R 25 R 35 R 45 R 5 - cyclopentadienyl) zirconium dichlorides or dimethyls where the R 1 to R 5 groups can be same or different and can be independently chosen from H 5 C 1 to C 2 o hydrocarbyl radicals.
  • R 1 to R 5 groups can be same or different and can be independently chosen from H 5 C 1 to C 2 o hydrocarbyl radicals.
  • alkyl C 1 to C 20 -alkyl group, specially, methyl, ethyl, n-propyl, n-butyl, n- pentyl, n-hexyl, etc.
  • Particularly preferred species are the racemic and meso versions of: dimethylsilylbis(indenyl) zirconium dichloride, dimethylsilylbis(indenyl) zirconium dimethyl, ethylenebis(indenyl) zirconium dichloride, ethylenebis(indenyl) zirconium dimethyl, dimethylsilylbis(tetrahydorindenyl) zirconium dichloride, dimethylsilylbis(tetrahydorindenyl) zirconium dimethyl, ethylenebis(tetrahydorindenyl) zirconium dichloride, ethylenebis(tetrahydorindenyl) zirconium dimethyl, dimethylsilylbis(4,7- dimethylindenyl) zirconium dichloride, dimethylsilylbis(4,7-dimethylindenyl) zirconium dimethyl, ethylenebis(4,7-dimethylindenyl) zir
  • catalysts include diphenylmethylidene(cyclopentadienyl)(9-fluorenyl)zirconium dichloride, iso- propylidene(cyclopentadienyl)(9-fluorenyl)zirconium dichloride, iso- propylidene(3-methylcyclopentadienyl)(9-fluorenyl)zirconium dichloride, ethylenebis(9-fluorenyl)zirconium dichloride, dimethylsilylbis(9- fluorenyl)zirconium dichloride, dimethylsilyl(cyclopentadienyl)(9- fluorenyl)zirconium dichloride, diphenylsilyl(cyclopentadienyl)(9- fluorenyl)zirconium dichloride, their analogs of dimethyls or the analogs of hafnium metallocenes.
  • the metallocene compounds when activated by a per se commonly known activator such as methyl aluminoxane, form active catalysts for the polymerization or oligomerization of olefins.
  • Activators that may be used include aluminoxanes such as methyl aluminoxane (or MAO, shown in Formula II, above), modified methyl aluminoxane, ethyl aluminoxane, iso-butyl aluminoxane and the like, Lewis acid activators including triphenyl boron, tris-perfluorophenyl boron, tris-perfluorophenyl aluminum and the like, ionic activators including dimethylamlinium tetrakis perfluorophenyl borate, triphenyl carbonium tetrakis perfluorophenyl borate, dimethylanilinium tetrakis perfluorophenyl aluminate, and the like
  • a co-activator is a compound capable of alkylating the transition metal complex, such that when used in combination with an activator, an active catalyst is formed.
  • Co-activators include aluminoxanes such as methyl aluminoxane, modified aluminoxanes such as modified methyl aluminoxane, and aluminum alkyls such trimethyl aluminum, tri-isobutyl aluminum, triethyl aluminum, and tri-isopropyl aluminum, tri-n-hexyl aluminum, tri-n-octyl aluminum, tri-n-decyl aluminum or tri-n-dodecyl aluminum.
  • Co-activators are typically used in combination with Lewis acid activators and ionic activators when the pre-catalyst is not a dihydrocarbyl or dihydride complex. Sometimes co-activators are also used as scavengers to deactivate impurities in feed or reactors.
  • the aluminoxane component useful as an activator typically is preferably an oligomeric aluminum compound represented by the general formula (R x - Al-O) n , which is a cyclic compound, or R x (R x -Al-O) n AlR x 2 , which is a linear compound.
  • the most common aluminoxane is a mixture of the cyclic and linear compounds.
  • R x is independently a C 1 -C 20 alkyl radical, for example, methyl, ethyl, propyl, butyl, pentyl, isomers thereof, and the like, and "n" is an integer from 1-50.
  • R x is methyl and "n" is at least 4. Methyl aluminoxane and modified methyl aluminoxanes are most preferred.
  • the catalyst- precursor-to-activator molar ratio (based on the metals, e.g., Zr or Hf to Al) is from about 1:3000 to 10:1; alternatively, 1:2000 to 10:1; alternatively 1:1000 to 10:1; alternatively, 1:500 to 1:1; alternatively 1:300 to 1:1; alternatively 1:250 to 1:1, alternatively 1:200 to 1:1; alternatively 1:100 to 1:1; alternatively 1:50 to 1:1; alternatively 1:10 to 1:1.
  • Ionic activators (which in embodiments may be used in combination with a co-activator) may be used in the practice of this invention. Ionic activators, sometimes referred to as non-coordinating anion (NCA) activators, usually refer to those activators that have distinctive ionic character in their active states, even though these activators are neutral chemical compounds. They are exemplified by Formula 2, above, which a preferred ionic activator.
  • Preferred co-activators when used, are aluminoxanes such as methyl aluminoxane, modified aluminoxanes such as modified methyl aluminoxane, and aluminum alkyls such as tri-isobutyl aluminum, and trimethyl aluminum, triethyl aluminum, and tri-isopropyl aluminum, tri-n-hexyl aluminum, tri-n-octyl aluminum, tri-n-decyl aluminum or tri-n-dodecyl aluminum.
  • aluminoxanes such as methyl aluminoxane
  • modified aluminoxanes such as modified methyl aluminoxane
  • aluminum alkyls such as tri-isobutyl aluminum, and trimethyl aluminum, triethyl aluminum, and tri-isopropyl aluminum, tri-n-hexyl aluminum, tri-n-octyl aluminum, tri-n-decyl aluminum or tri-n-dodecy
  • the preferred ionic activators are N 5 N- dimethylanilinium tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)borate, tetra-methylanilinium tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)borate, tetradecylanilinium tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)borate, tetrahexadecylanilinium tetrakis(pentafluoro ⁇ henyl)borate, [Ph 3 C][B(C 6 Fs) 4 ], B(C 6 Fs) 3 .
  • an ionizing or stoichiometric activator such as tri (n-butyl) ammonium tetrakis (pentafluorophenyl) borate, a tris(perfluorophenyl) boron metalloid precursor or a tris(perfluoronaphthyl) boron metalloid precursor, polyhalogenated heteroborane anions (e.g., WO 98/43983), boric acid (e.g., U.S. Patent No. 5,942,459) or combination thereof.
  • neutral or ionic such as tri (n-butyl) ammonium tetrakis (pentafluorophenyl) borate, a tris(perfluorophenyl) boron metalloid precursor or a tris(perfluoronaphthyl) boron metalloid precursor, polyhalogenated heteroborane anions (e.g., WO 98/43983), boric acid (e.g
  • Examples of neutral stoichiometric activators include tri-substituted boron, tellurium, aluminum, gallium and indium or mixtures thereof.
  • the three s ⁇ bstituent groups are each independently selected from alkyls, alkenyls, halogen, substituted alkyls, aryls, arylhalides, alkoxy and halides.
  • the three groups are independently selected from halogen, mono- or multicyclic (including halosubstituted) aryls, alkyls, and alkenyl compounds and mixtures thereof, preferred are alkenyl groups having 1 to 20 carbon atoms, alkyl groups having 1 to 20 carbon atoms, alkoxy groups having 1 to 20 carbon atoms and aryl groups having 3 to 20 carbon atoms (including substituted aryls). More preferably, the three groups are alkyls having 1 to 4 carbon groups, phenyl, naphthyl or mixtures thereof. Even more preferably, the three groups are halogenated, preferably fluorinated, aryl groups.
  • the neutral stoichiometric activator is tris(perfluorophenyl) boron or tris(perfluoronaphthyl) boron.
  • Ionic stoichiometric activator compounds may contain an active proton, or some other cation associated with, but not coordinated to, or only loosely coordinated to, the remaining ion of the ionizing compound. Such compounds and the like are described in European publications EP-A-O 570 982, EP-A-O 520 732, EP-A-O 495 375, EP-Bl-O 500 944, EP-A-O 277 003 and EP-A- 0 277 004, and U.S. Patent Nos. 5,153,157, 5,198,401, 5,066,741, 5,206,197, 5,241,025, 5,384,299 and 5,502,124 and U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 08/285,380, filed August 3, 1994.
  • Ionic catalysts can be prepared by reacting a transition metal compound with an activator, such as B(C 6 F 6 ) 3 , which upon reaction with the hydrolyzable ligand (X') of the transition metal compound forms an anion, such as ([B(C 6 Fs) 3 (X')] " ), which stabilizes the cationic transition metal species generated by the reaction.
  • the catalysts can be, and preferably are, prepared with activator components which are ionic compounds or compositions. However preparation of activators utilizing neutral compounds is also contemplated by this invention.
  • Compounds useful as an activator component in the preparation of the ionic catalyst systems used in the process of this invention comprise a cation, which is preferably a Br ⁇ nsted acid capable of donating a proton, and a compatible non-coordinating anion which anion is relatively large (bulky), capable of stabilizing the active catalyst species which is formed when the two compounds are combined and said anion will be sufficiently labile to be displaced by olefinic, diolefinic, and acetylenically unsaturated substrates or other neutral Lewis bases such as ethers, nitriles and the like.
  • a cation which is preferably a Br ⁇ nsted acid capable of donating a proton
  • a compatible non-coordinating anion which anion is relatively large (bulky)
  • the stoichiometric activators include a cation and an anion component, and may be represented by the following formula: (L**-H) d + (A d -) wherein L** is an neutral Lewis base; H is hydrogen; (L**-H) + is a Br ⁇ nsted acid A d ⁇ is a non-coordinating anion having the charge d- d is an integer from 1 to 3.
  • the cation component, (L**-H) d + may include Br ⁇ nsted acids such as protons or protonated Lewis bases or reducible Lewis acids capable of protonating or abstracting a moiety, such as an alkyl or aryl, from the precatalyst after alkylation.
  • the activating cation (L**-H) d + may be a Br ⁇ nsted acid, capable of donating a proton to the alkylated transition metal catalytic precursor resulting in a transition metal cation, including ammoniums, oxoniums, phosphoniums, silyliums, and mixtures thereof, preferably ammoniums of methylamine, aniline, dimethylamine, diethylamine, N-methylaniline, diphenylamine, trimethylamine, triethylamine, N,N-dimethylaniline, methyldiphenylamine, pyridine, p-bromo N,N-dimethylaniline, p-nitro-N,N-dimethylaniline, phosphoniums from triethylphosphine, triphenylphosphine, and diphenylphosphine, oxomiuns from ethers such as dimethyl ether, diethyl ether, tetrahydrofur
  • the activating cation (L**-H) d + may also be a moiety such as silver, tropylium, carbeniurns, ferroceniums and mixtures, preferably carboniums and ferroceniums; most preferably triphenyl carbonium.
  • each Q is a fluorinated hydrocarbyl group having 1 to 20 carbon atoms, more preferably each Q is a fluorinated aryl group, and most preferably each Q is a pentafluoryl aryl group.
  • suitable A d ⁇ also include diboron compounds as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,895, which is fully incorporated herein by reference.
  • boron compounds which may be used as an activating cocatalyst in combination with a co-activator in the preparation of the improved catalysts of this invention are tri-substituted ammonium salts such as: trimethylammonium tetraphenylborate, triethylammonium tetraphenylborate, tripropylammonium tetraphenylborate, tri( «-butyl)ammonium tetraphenylborate, tri(tert-butyl)ammonium tetraphenylborate, N,N-dimethylanilinium tetraphenylborate, N,N- diethylanilinium tetraphenylborate, N,N-dimethyl-(2,4,6-trimethylanilinium) tetraphenylborate, trimethylammonium tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)borate,
  • the ionic stoichiometric activator (L**-H) d + (A d ⁇ ) is N,N-dimethylanilinium tetrakis(perfluorophenyl)borate, N,N-dimethylanilinium tetrakis(perfluoronaphthyl)borate, N,N-dimethylanilinium tetrakis(perfluorobiphenyl)borate, N,N-dimethylanilinium tetrakis(3,5- bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)borate, triphenylcarbenium tetrakis(perfluoronaphthyl)borate, triphenylcarbenium tetrakis(perfluorobiphenyl)borate, triphenylcarbenium tetrakis(3,5- bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)borate, or triphenylcarbenium t
  • the catalyst precursors can also be activated with cocatalysts or activators that comprise non-coordinating anions containing metalloid-free cyclopentadienide ions. These are described in U.S. Patent Publication 2002/0058765 Al, published on 16 May 2002, and for the instant invention, require the addition of a co-activator to the catalyst pre-cursor.
  • "Compatible" non-coordinating anions are those which are not degraded to neutrality when the initially formed complex decomposes. Further, the anion will not transfer an anionic substituent or fragment to the cation so as to cause it to form a neutral transition metal compound and a neutral by-product from the anion.
  • Preferred non-coordinating anions useful in accordance with this invention are those that are compatible, stabilize the transition metal complex cation in the sense of balancing its ionic charge at +1, yet retain sufficient lability to permit displacement by an ethylenically or acetylenically unsaturated monomer during polymerization.
  • These types of cocatalysts are sometimes used with scavengers. They have the general compositions Of R 1 , R 2 , R 3 -Al where R 1 , R 2 and R 3 can be H or any of C 1 to C 20 hydrocarbyl radicals.
  • trialkylaluminum compounds include but are not limited to tri-wo-butyl aluminum, tri-R-octyl aluminum, tri-H-hexyl aluminum, triethylaluminum or trimethylaluminum, tri-n-decyl aluminum, tri-n-dodecyl aluminum.
  • Invention processes also can employ cocatalyst compounds or activator compounds that are initially neutral Lewis acids but form a cationic metal complex and a noncoordinating anion, or a zwitterionic complex upon reaction with the alkylated transition metal compounds.
  • the alkylated metallocene compound is formed from the reaction of the catalyst pre-cursor and the co-activator.
  • tris(pentafluorophenyl) boron or aluminum act to abstract a hydrocarbyl ligand to yield an invention cationic transition metal complex and stabilizing noncoordinating anion, see EP-A-O 427 697 and EP-A-O 520 732 for illustrations of analogous Group-4 metallocene compounds. Also, see the methods and compounds of EP-A-O 495 375. For formation of zwitterionic complexes using analogous Group 4 compounds, see U.S. Patents 5,624,878; 5,486,632; and 5,527,929.
  • the catalyst-precursor-to- activator molar ratio may be any ratio. Combinations of the described activator compounds may also be used for activation.
  • the catalyst-precursor-to-activator molar ratio is from 1:10 to 1:1; 1:10 to 10:1; 1:10 to 2:1; 1:10 to 3:1; 1:10 to 5:1; 1:2 to 1.2:1; 1:2 to 10:1; 1:2 to 2:1; 1:2 to 3:1; 1:2 to 5:1; 1:3 to 1.2:1; 1:3 to 10:1; 1:3 to 2:1; 1:3 to 3:1; 1:3 to 5:1; 1:5 to 1:1; 1:5 to 10:1; 1:5 to 2:1; 1:5 to 3:1; 1:5 to 5:1; 1:1 to 1:1.2.
  • the catalyst-precursor-toco-activator molar ratio is from 1:500 to 1:1, 1:100 to 100:1; 1:75 to 75:1; 1:50 to 50:1; 1:25 to 25:1; 1:15 to 15:1; 1:10 to 10:1; 1:5 to 5:1, 1:2 to 2:1; 1:100 to 1:1; 1:75 to 1:1; 1:50 to 1:1; 1:25 to 1:1; 1:15 to 1:1; 1:10 to 1:1; 1:5 to 1:1; 1:2 to 1:1; I:10 to 2:l.
  • Preferred activators and activator/co-activator combinations include methylaluminoxane, modified methylaluminoxane, mixtures of methylaluminoxane with dimethylanilinium tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)borate or tris(pentafluorophenyl)boron, and mixtures of trialkyl aluminum, preferable any one of tri-isobutyl aluminum, triethyl aluminum, tri-n-alkyl aluminum or trimethyl aluminum or their combination, with dimethylanilinium tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)borate or tris(pentafluorophenyl)boron or their analogs.
  • scavenging compounds are used with stoichiometric activators.
  • Typical aluminum or boron alkyl components useful as scavengers are represented by the general formula R X JZ 2 where J is aluminum or boron, R x is as previously defined above, and each Z is independently R x or a different univalent anionic ligand such as halogen (Cl, Br, I), alkoxide (OR X ) and the like.
  • R x is a H or any radical chosen from the C 1 to C 20 hydrocarbyl radicals.
  • Most preferred aluminum alkyls include triethylaluminum, diethylaluminum chloride, tri-z-fo-butylaluminum, tri-n-octylaluminum. tri-w-hexylaluminum, trimethylaluminum and the like.
  • Preferred boron alkyls include triethylboron.
  • Scavenging compounds may also be aluminoxanes and modified aluminoxanes including methylaluminoxane and modified methylaluminoxane.
  • the scavenger can be the same or different from the co-activator used for the catalyst system.
  • An active catalyst solution can be prepared by dissolving metallocene, activator including methylaluminoxane or NCA, co-activator and/or scavenger in proper pre-purified solvent individually. Then combine all the component solutions in any one of the following orders to give active catalyst solution.
  • Method (a) - add metallocene solution to co-activator and/or scavenger solution, followed by addition of activator.
  • Method (b) - combine metallocene solution with activator solution and add this mixture into co-activator and/or scavenger solution.
  • co-activator and/or scavenger solution can be added in two separate stages in method (a) to (c).
  • preparation of stock solutions is not necessary. All components are mixed directly into proper pre-purified solvent.
  • One method [method (d)] to prepare catalyst solution is to first add co-activator and/or scavenger to solvent, followed by addition of metallocene solution or solid, followed by activator solution or solid.
  • Another method [method (e)] is to first add metallocene solution or solid to solvent, followed by co-activator and/or scavenger, followed by activator.
  • Another method [method (Jf)] is to first add co- activator and/or scavenger solution or liquid to solvent, followed metallocene solution or solid, followed by activator solution or solid.
  • Another method [method (g)] is to first add co-activator and/or scavenger solution or liquid to solvent, followed activator solution or solid, followed by metallocene solution or solid. All these methods produce active catalyst solutions.
  • method (a) and method (d) are the most preferred methods.
  • AU solvents used in the catalyst i preparation are pre-purified by passing through purifiers, which include molecular sieves and/or activated de-oxygenation catalysts.
  • a small amount of co-activator and/or scavenger tri-alkylaluminum or aluminoxane is added to all the solvents to remove impurities.
  • the catalyst system includes a support.
  • the solubility of invention catalyst precursors allows for the ready preparation of supported catalysts.
  • the catalyst precursor preferably dissolves in the chosen solvent.
  • uniform supported catalyst means that the catalyst precursor, the activator and or the activated catalyst approach uniform distribution upon the support's accessible surface area, including the interior pore surfaces of porous supports. Some embodiments of supported catalysts prefer uniform supported catalysts; other embodiments show no such preference.
  • Useful supported catalyst systems may be prepared by any method effective to support other coordination catalyst systems, effective meaning that the catalyst so prepared can be used for oligomerizing or polymerizing olefin in a heterogeneous process.
  • the catalyst precursor, activator, co-activator if needed, suitable solvent, and support may be added in any order or simultaneously.
  • the activator, dissolved in an appropriate solvent such as toluene may be stirred with the support material for 1 minute to 10 hours.
  • the total solution volume may be greater than the pore volume of the support, but some embodiments limit the total solution volume below that needed to form a gel or slurry (about 90% to 400 %, preferably about 100-200% of the pore volume).
  • the mixture is optionally heated from 30-200 0 C during this time.
  • the catalyst precursor may be added to this mixture as a solid, if a suitable solvent is employed in the previous step, or as a solution. Or alternatively, this mixture can be filtered, and the resulting solid mixed with a catalyst precursor solution. Similarly, the mixture may be vacuum-dried and mixed with a catalyst precursor solution. The resulting catalyst mixture is then stirred for 1 minute to 10 hours, and the supported catalyst is filtered from the solution and the solvent removed, either by vacuum-drying or evaporation alone.
  • the catalyst precursor and activator may be combined in solvent to form a solution. Then the support is added, and the mixture is stirred for 1 minute to 10 hours.
  • the total solution volume may be greater than the pore volume of the support, but some embodiments limit the total solution volume below that needed to form a gel or slurry (about 90% to 400 %, preferably about 100-200% of the pore volume). After stirring, the residual solvent is removed under vacuum, typically at ambient temperature and over 10-16 hours. But greater or lesser times and temperatures are possible.
  • the catalyst precursor may also be supported absent the activator; in that case, the activator (and co-activator if needed) is added to a slurry process's liquid phase.
  • a solution of catalyst precursor may be mixed with a support material for a period of about 1 minute to 10 hours.
  • the resulting precatalyst mixture may be filtered from the solution and dried under vacuum, or evaporation alone removes the solvent.
  • the total catalyst-precursor-solution volume may be greater than the support's pore volume, but some embodiments limit the total solution volume below that needed to form a gel or slurry (about 90% to 400 %, preferably about 100-200% of the pore volume).
  • two or more different catalyst precursors may be placed on the same support using any of the support methods disclosed above.
  • two or more activators or an activator and co-activator may be placed on the same support.
  • Suitable solid particle supports are typically comprised of polymeric or refractory oxide materials, each being preferably porous. Any support material that has an average particle size greater than 10 ⁇ m is suitable for use in this invention.
  • a porous support material such as for example, talc, inorganic oxides, inorganic chlorides, for example magnesium chloride and resinous support materials such as polystyrene polyolefin or polymeric compounds or any other organic support material and the like.
  • Some embodiments select inorganic oxide materials as the support material including Group-2, -3, -4, -5, -13, or -14 metal or metalloid oxides.
  • the catalyst support materials select to include silica, alumina, silica-alumina, and their mixtures.
  • Other inorganic oxides may serve either alone or in combination with the silica, alumina, or silica-alumina. These are magnesia, titania, zirconia, and the like.
  • Lewis acidic materials such as montmorillonite and similar clays may also serve as a support. In this case, the support can optionally double as an activator component. But additional activator may also be used.
  • a special family of solid support commonly known as MCM-41 can also be used. MCM-41 is a new class of unique crystalline support and can be prepared with tunable pore size and tunable acidity when modified with a second component. A detailed description of this class of material and their modification can be found in US 5,264,203. [00105]
  • the support material may be pretreated by any number of methods.
  • inorganic oxides may be calcined, chemically treated with dehydroxylating agents such as aluminum alkyls and the like, or both.
  • polymeric carriers will also be suitable in accordance with the invention, see for example the descriptions in WO 95/15815 and U.S. patent 5,427,991.
  • the methods disclosed may be used with the catalyst compounds, activators or catalyst systems of this invention to adsorb or absorb them on the polymeric supports, particularly if made up of porous particles, or may be chemically bound through functional groups bound to or in the polymer chains.
  • Useful catalyst carriers may have a surface area of from 10-700 m 2 /g, and or a pore volume of 0.1-4.0 cc/g and or an average particle size of 10- 500 ⁇ m. Some embodiments select a surface area of 50-500 m 2 /g, and or a pore volume of 0.5-3.5 cc/g, and or an average particle size of 20-200 ⁇ m. Other embodiments select a surface area of 100-400 m 2 /g, and or a pore volume of 0.8- 3.0 cc/g, and or an average particle size of 30-100 ⁇ m. Carriers of this invention typically have a pore size of 10-1000 angstroms, alternatively 50-500 angstroms, or 75-350 angstroms.
  • the metallocenes and or the metallocene/activator combinations are generally deposited on the support at a loading level of 10-100 micromoles of catalyst precursor per gram of solid support; alternately 20-80 micromoles of catalyst precursor per gram of solid support; or 40-60 micromoles of catalyst precursor per gram of support. But greater or lesser values may be used provided that the total amount of solid catalyst precursor does not exceed the support's pore volume.
  • the metallocenes and or the metallocene/activator combinations can be supported for bulk, or slurry polymerization, or a fixed bed reactor or otherwise as needed.
  • Numerous support methods are known for catalysts in the olefin polymerization art, particularly aluminoxane-activated catalysts; all are suitable for use herein. See, for example, U.S. Patents 5,057,475 and 5,227,440.
  • An example of supported ionic catalysts appears in WO 94/03056.
  • U.S. Patent 5,643,847 and WO 96/04319A which describe a particularly effective method.
  • Both polymers and inorganic oxides may serve as supports, see U.S. Patents 5,422,325, 5,427,991, 5,498,582 and 5,466,649, and international publications WO 93/11172 and WO 94/07928.
  • the metallocene and or activator are combined with an alkyl aluminum compound, preferably a trialkyl aluminum compound, prior to entering the reactor.
  • an alkyl aluminum compound is represented by the formula: R 3 Al, where each R is independently a C 1 to C 20 alkyl group, preferably the R groups are independently selected from the group consisting of methyl, ethyl, propyl, isopropyl, butyl, isobutyl, n-butyl, pentyl, isopentyl, n-pentyl, hexyl, isohexyl, n- hexyl, heptyl, octyl, isocotyl.
  • n-octyl nonyl, isononyl, n-nonyl, decyl, isodecyl, n-cecyl, undecyl, isoundecyl, n-undecyl, dodecyl, isododecyl, and n-dodecyl, preferably isobutyl, n-octyl, n-hexyl, and n-dodecyl.
  • the alkyl aluminum compound is selected from tri-isobutyl aluminum, tri n-octyl aluminum, tri-n-hexyl aluminum, and tri-n-dodecyl aluminum.
  • the temperature in any reactor used herein is from -1O 0 C to 250 0 C, preferably from 3O 0 C to 220 0 C, preferably from 5O 0 C to 180 0 C, preferably from 6O 0 C to 170 0 C.
  • the pressure in any reactor used herein is from 0.1 to 100 atmospheres, preferably from 0.5 to 75 atmospheres, preferably from 1 to 50 atmospheres.
  • the monomers, metallocene and activator are contacted for a residence time of from 1 second to 100 hours, preferably 30 seconds to 50 hours, preferably 2 minutes to 6 hours, preferably 1 minute to 4 hours.
  • solvent or diluent is present in the reactor and is preferably selected from the group consisting of butanes, pentanes, hexanes, heptanes, octanes, nonanes, decanes, undecanes, dodecanes, tridecanes, tetradecanes, pentadecanes, hexadecanes, benzene, toluene, o-xylenes, m-xylenes, p-xylenes, ethylbenzene, isopropylbenzene, and n-butylbenzene, preferably toluene and or xylenes and or ethylbenzene, NorparTM or IsoparTM solvent.
  • solvents or diluents may be pre-treated in same manners as the feed olefins.
  • one or more transition metal compounds, one or more activators, and one or more feeds according to the present invention are contacted to produce polymer or oligomer.
  • These catalysts may be supported and as such will be particularly useful in the known slurry, solution, or bulk operating modes conducted in single, series, or parallel reactors. If the catalyst or activator or co-activator is a soluble compound, the reaction can be carried out in a solution mode.
  • the feed alpha-olefins can be charged individually or pre-mixed in a mixture, or one stream contains mixture of feed olefins and another stream contains one olefin feed, such as in the case when one of the feed olefins is gaseous or liquefied gas propylene or 1-butene or mixed butene stream.
  • the reaction can be run in a batch mode where all the components are added into a reactor and allowed to react to a pre-designed degree of conversion, either partial conversion or full conversion. Then the catalyst is deactivated by any possible means, such as exposure to air, water, or by addition of alcohols or solvents containing deactivator agents.
  • the reaction can also be carried out in a semi-continuous operation, where feeds and catalyst components are continuously and simultaneously added to the reactor so to maintain a constant ratio of catalyst system and feed olefins. When all feeds and catalyst components are added, the reaction is allowed to proceed to a pre-determined stage. Then the reaction is discontinued in the same manner as described in the batch operation.
  • the reaction can also be carried out in a continuous operation, where feeds and catalyst are continuously and simultaneously added to the reactor so to maintain a constant ratio of catalyst system and feed olefins.
  • the reaction product is continuously withdrawn from the reactor, as in a typical continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) operation. The residence times of the reactants are controlled by a pre-determined degree of conversion.
  • any of the processes to prepare PAO's described herein are continuous processes.
  • the continuous process comprises the steps of a) continuously introducing a feed stream comprising at least 10 mole % of the one or more C 3 to C 24 alpha-olefins into a reactor, b) continuously introducing the metallocene compound and the activator into the reactor, and c) continuously withdrawing the polyalpha-olefin from the reactor.
  • the continuous process comprises the step of maintaining a partial pressure of hydrogen in the reactor of 200 psi (1379 kPa) or less, based upon the total pressure of the reactor, preferably 150 psi (1034 kPa) or less, preferably 100 psi (690 kPa) or less, preferably 50 psi (345 kPa) or less, preferably 25 psi (173 kPa) or less, preferably 10 psi (69 kPa) or less.
  • One or more reactors in series or in parallel may be used in the present invention.
  • the transition metal compound, activator and when required, co-activator may be delivered as a solution or slurry in a solvent or in the alpha- olefin feed stream, either separately to the reactor, activated in-line just prior to the reactor, or preactivated and pumped as an activated solution or slurry to the reactor.
  • Polymerizations/oligomerizations are carried out in either single reactor operation, in which monomer, or several monomers, catalyst/activator/co- activator, optional scavenger, and optional modifiers are added continuously to a single reactor or in series reactor operation, in which the above components are added to each of two or more reactors connected in series.
  • the catalyst components can be added to the first reactor in the series.
  • the catalyst component may also be added to both reactors, with one component being added to first reaction and another component to other reactors.
  • the precatalyst is activated in the reactor in the presence of olefin.
  • the precatalyst such as the dichloride form of the metallocenes is pre-treated with alkylalumum reagents, especially, triisobutylaluminum, tri-n-hexylaluminum or tri-n-octylaluminum, followed by charging into the reactor containing other catalyst component and the feed olefins, or followed by pre-activation with the other catalyst component to give the fully activated catalyst, which is then fed into the reactor containing feed olefins.
  • the pre-catalyst metallocene is mixed with the activator and/or the co-activator and this activated catalyst is then charged into reactor, together with feed olefin stream containing some scavenger or co- activator.
  • the whole or part of the co-activator is pre- mixed with the feed olefins and charged into the reactor at the same time as the other catalyst solution containing metallocene and activators and/or co-activator.
  • the catalyst compositions can be used individually or can be mixed with other known polymerization catalysts to prepare polymer or oligomer blends. Monomer and catalyst selection allows polymer or oligomer blend preparation under conditions analogous to those using individual catalysts. Polymers having increased MWD are available from polymers made with mixed catalyst systems can thus be achieved.
  • the feed pre-treatment is usually conducted by passing the liquid or gaseous feed stream over at least one bed of activated molecular sieves, such as 13X, 5 A, 4 A, 3A molecular sieve. Sometimes, two beds of the same or different molecular sieves are used. Sometimes, a special oxygenate removal catalyst bed is also employed. Such oxygenate removal catalysts include various reduced copper oxide catalyst or reduced copper chromite catalyst.
  • the complete catalyst system will additionally comprise one or more scavenging compounds.
  • scavenging compound means a compound that removes polar impurities from the reaction environment. These impurities adversely affect catalyst activity and stability.
  • purifying steps are used before introducing reaction components to a reaction vessel. But such steps will rarely allow polymerization or oligomerization without using some scavenging compounds. Normally, the polymerization process will still use at least small amounts of scavenging compounds.
  • the scavenging compound will be an organometallic compound such as the Group- 13 organometallic compounds of U.S. Patents 5,153,157, 5,241,025 and WO-A-91/09882, WO-A-94/03506, WO-A-93/14132, and that of WO 95/07941.
  • organometallic compounds include triethyl aluminum, triethyl borane, tri-wo-butyl aluminum, diisobutylaluminum hydride, methyl aluminoxane, iso-butyl aluminoxane, and tri-n-octyl aluminum.
  • scavenging compounds having bulky or C 6 -C 2O linear hydrocarbyl substituents connected to the metal or metalloid center usually minimize adverse interaction with the active catalyst.
  • examples include triethylaluminum, but more preferably, bulky compounds such as tri-wo-butyl aluminum, tri-wo-prenyl aluminum, and long-chain linear alkyl-substituted aluminum compounds, such as tri-n-hexyl aluminum, tri-n-octyl aluminum, or tri-n-dodecyl aluminum.
  • aluminoxane is used as the activator, any excess over that needed for activation will scavenge impurities and additional scavenging compounds may be unnecessary.
  • Aluminoxanes also may be added in scavenging quantities with other activators, e.g., methylaluminoxane, [Me 2 HNPh] + [B(pfp) 4 ] " or B(pfp) 3> where pfp is perfluorophenyl (C 6 F 5 ) Me is methyl and Ph is phenyl.
  • activators e.g., methylaluminoxane, [Me 2 HNPh] + [B(pfp) 4 ] " or B(pfp) 3> where pfp is perfluorophenyl (C 6 F 5 ) Me is methyl and Ph is phenyl.
  • the process according to the invention may also be accomplished in a homogeneous solution processes. Generally this involves polymerization or oligomerization in a continuous reactor in which the polymer formed and the starting feed according to the invention and catalyst materials according to the invention are agitated to reduce or avoid concentration or temperature gradients.
  • Temperature control in the reactor is generally obtained by balancing the heat of polymerization and with reactor cooling by reactor jackets or cooling coils or a cooled side-stream of reactant to cool the contents of the reactor, auto refrigeration, pre-chilled feeds, vaporization of liquid medium (diluent, monomers or solvent) or combinations of all the above methods. Adiabatic reactors with pre-chilled feeds may also be used. The reactor temperature depends on the catalyst used and the product desired.
  • the reactor temperature preferably can vary between about 0 °C and about 300 °C, more preferably from about 10 °C to about 250 °C, and most preferably from about 25 °C to about 230 °C.
  • the second reactor temperature is preferably higher than the first reactor temperature.
  • the temperatures of the two reactors are independent. Or one can use two types of metallocene catalysts.
  • reaction conditions may generally be determined by one of ordinary skill in the art in possession of the present disclosure, typical conditions will now be discussed.
  • the pressure in any reactor used herein can vary typically from about 0.1 atmosphere to 100 atmosphere (1.5 psi to 1500 psi), preferably from 0.5 bar to 75 arm (8 psi-1125 psi), most preferably from 1.0 to 50 arm (15 psi to 750 psi).
  • the reaction pressure is usually higher than atmospheric pressure when light olefins with high vapor pressures, such as propylene or butenes, are used as one of the feed olefins.
  • the reaction can be carried out under the atmosphere of nitrogen or with some hydrogen. Sometimes a small amount of hydrogen is added to the reactor to improve the catalyst productivity.
  • the amount of hydrogen is preferred to keep at such a level to improve catalyst productivity, but not induce any hydrogenation of olefins, especially the feed alpha-oleflns because the conversion of alpha-olefins into saturated paraffins is very detrimental to the efficiency of the process.
  • the amount of hydrogen partial pressure is preferred to be kept low, less than 100 psi, preferably less than 50 psi, preferably less than 25 psi, preferably less than lOpsi, preferably less than 5 psi, preferably less than 1 psi.
  • the concentration of hydrogen in the reactant phase is less than 100 ppm, preferably less than 50 ppm, preferably less than 10 ppm, preferably less than 1 ppm.
  • the concentration of hydrogen in the reactor is kept at a partial pressure of 200 psi (1379 kPa) or less, based upon the total pressure of the reactor, preferably 150 psi (1034 kPa) or less, preferably 100 psi (690 kPa) or less, preferably 50 psi (345 kPa) or less, preferably 10 psi (69 kPa) or less.
  • the reaction time or reactor residence time is usually dependent on the type of catalyst used, the amount of catalyst system used, and the desired conversion level. Different metallocenes have different activity. Usually, higher degree of alkyl substitution on the cyclopentadienyl ring, or bridging improves catalyst productivity. Catalysts such as 1,2,3,4- tetramethylcyclopentadienylzirconium dichloride or 1,2,4-tri methylcyclopentadienylzirconium dichloride, or pentamethylcyclopentadienyl zirconium dichloride or their dialkyl analogs have desirable high productivity and stability than unsubstituted metallocenes.
  • the amount of catalyst components used is determinative. A high catalyst loading tends to gives high conversion at short reaction time. However, high catalyst usage makes the production process uneconomical and difficult to manage the reaction heat or to control the reaction temperature. Therefore, it is useful to choose a catalyst with maximum catalyst productivity to minimize the amount of metallocene and the amount of activators needed.
  • the range of methylaluminoxane used is typically in the range of 0.01 milligram (mg) to 500 mg/g of alpha-olefin feed. A more preferred range is from 0.02 mg to 10 mg/g of alpha-olefin feed.
  • the molar ratios of the aluminum to metallocene range from 2 to 4000, preferably 10 to 2000, more preferably 50 to 1000, and most preferably 100 to 500.
  • the metallocene use is typically in the range of 0.01 microgram to 500 micrograms of metallocene component/gram of alpha- olefin feed.
  • the preferred range is from 0.1 microgram to 100 microgram of metallocene component per gram of alpha-olefin feed.
  • the molar ratio of the NCA activator to metallocene is in the range from 0.1 to 10, preferably 0.5 to 5, more preferably 0.5 to 3. If a co-activator of alkylaluminum compound is used, the molar ratio of the Al to metallocene is in the range from 1 to 1000, preferably 2 to 500, more preferably 4 to 400, even more preferably 4 to 100, or most preferably 10 to 50.
  • the highest possible conversion (close to 100%) of feed alpha-olefin in the shortest possible reaction time is preferred.
  • partial conversion is more desirable, namely when the narrowest possible MWD of the product is desirable because partial conversion can avoid a MWD broadening effect.
  • the conversions of the total feed olefins are in the range of 20% to 100%, more desirably in the range of 50% to 100%, and most desirably in the range of 80 to 99%.
  • the unreacted starting material after separation from other product and solvents/diluents can be recycled to increase the total process efficiency.
  • the catalyst productivity is usually in the range of 20 to 50,000 gram total product per gram of MAO, preferably greater than 100 gram total product per gram of MAO, most preferably greater than 500 gram total product per gram of MAO.
  • the catalyst productivity is typically 1000 to 10,000,000 gram total product per gram of metallocene catalyst, preferably 10,000 gram, more preferably 50,000 gram of total product per gram of metallocene catalyst.
  • the catalyst productivity is in the same range for grams of total product per grams of Lewis acid or ionic promoter with NCA component.
  • Desirable residence times for any process described herein may likewise be determined by one of ordinary skill in the art in possession of the present disclosure, and will typically range from 1 minute to 20 hours, or more typically 5 minutes to 10 hours.
  • Each of these processes may also be employed in single reactor, parallel or series reactor configurations.
  • the liquid processes comprise contacting olefin monomers with the above described catalyst system, preferably in a suitable diluent, solvent, recycle, or mixture thereof, and allowing the reaction to occur for a sufficient time to produce the desired polymers or oligomers.
  • Hydrocarbon solvents both aliphatic and aromatic are suitable.
  • Aromatics such as benzene, toluene, xylenes, ethylbenzene, propylbenzene, cumene, t-butylbenzene are suitable.
  • Alkanes such as hexane, heptane, pentane, isopentane, and octane
  • NorparTM fluids or IsoparTM fluids from ExxonMobil Chemical Company in Houston, Texas are also suitable.
  • toluene is most suitable to dissolve catalyst components.
  • Norpar fluids or Isopar fluids or hexanes (or mixtures thereof) are preferred as reaction diluents.
  • a mixture of toluene and Norpar fluids or Isopar fluids is used as diluent or solvent.
  • the process can be carried out in a continuous stirred tank reactor, batch reactor, or plug flow reactor, or more than one reactor operated in series or parallel. These reactors may have or may not have internal cooling and the monomer feed may or may not be refrigerated. See, for instance, U.S. patent 5,705,577 for typical process conditions.
  • a slurry polymerization/oligomerization process generally operates in the similar temperature, pressure and residence time range as described previously.
  • a suspension of solid catalyst, promoters, monomer and comonomers are added.
  • the suspension including diluent is intermittently or continuously removed from the reactor.
  • the catalyst is then separated from the product by filtration, centrifugation, or settlement.
  • the fluid is then distilled to remove solvent, any unreacted components, and light product. A portion or all of the solvent and unreacted component or light components can be recycled for reuse.
  • the catalyst used is un-supported, solution catalyst, when the reaction is complete as in the batch mode, or when the product is withdrawn from the reactor as in a CSTR, the product may still contain soluble or suspended catalyst components. These components are preferably deactivated and/or removed. Any of the usual catalyst deactivation methods or aqueous wash methods can be used to remove the catalyst component. Typically, the reaction is deactivated by addition of stoichiometric amount or excess of air, moisture, alcohol, isopropanol, etc. The mixture is then washed with dilute sodium hydroxide or with water to remove catalyst components. The residual organic layer is then subjected to distillation to remove solvent, which can be recycled for reuse.
  • the distillation can further remove any light reaction product from C 18 and less. These light components can be used as diluent for further reaction. Or they can be used as olefinic raw material for other chemical synthesis, as these light olefin product have vinylidene unsaturation, most suitable for further functionalization to convert in high performance fluids. Or these light olefin products can be hydrogenated to be used as high quality paraffinic solvents. [00127] Polymerization or oligomerization in absence of hydrogen is also advantageous to provide polymers or oligomers with high degree of unsaturated double bonds. These double bonds can be easily converted into functionalized fluids with multiple performance features.
  • Examples for converting these polymers with molecular weight greater than 300 can be found in the preparation of ashless dispersants, by reacting the polymers with maleic anhydride to give PAO-succinic anhydride which can then reacted with amines, alcohols, polyether alcohols to convert into dispersants. Examples for such conversion can be found in the book "Lubricant Additives: Chemistry and Application,” ed. by Leslie R. Rudnick, p. 143-170.
  • the polymerization step usually produces some light ends with less than C 24 carbons.
  • the amount of the light fraction usually depends on the reaction temperature, catalyst used, residence time, and the desired fluid viscosity or molecular weight. Usually, a lower viscosity process produces higher amount of light fraction and high viscosity (>10 cSt) process produces almost exclusively >C 24 fraction, with little or no light fractions.
  • the light fraction can range from 0.1 wt% to 30 wt% of total product for a 150 cSt fluid to 6 cSt fluid, respectively, from mixed LAO. It is usually more desirable to produce the least amount of light fraction. The amount of light fraction can be minimized by careful control of the process temperature, residence time, stable and homogeneous catalyst, etc.
  • Polymerization can also be carried out in the presence of hydrogen.
  • the polyalpha-olefins produced from the above polymerization process using a mixed alpha-olefins as feed contain unsaturated double bond, sometimes rich in vinylidene contents with some 1,2-disubstituted olefins. These unsaturated polymers are most suitable for further functionalization reaction. Examples of such functionalization are alkylation with aromatics compounds, such as benzene, toluene, xylene, naphthalene, phenol or alkylphenols.
  • the polymer olefins can also react with maleic anhydride to give polyalpha-olefin succinic anhydride, which can be further converted with amines or alcohols to corresponding succinimide or succinate esters. These imides and esters are superior dispersants. Because of the use of PAO as the hydrocarbon moiety, the finished dispersant will have much better viscometrics than the conventional dispersants made from polyisobutylene.
  • the product of the process according to the invention comprising polyalpha-olefins, is hydrogenated.
  • the polyalpha-olefin product is preferably treated to reduce heteroatom catalyst components to less than 600 ppm, and then contacted with hydrogen and a hydrogenation catalyst to produce a polyalpha-olefin having a bromine number less than 1.8.
  • the bromine number is below 1.8. Lower bromine number is more desirable, as it indicates an improved thermal/oxidative stability.
  • the treated polyalpha-olefin comprises 100 ppm of heteroatom catalyst components or less, preferably 10 ppm of heteroatom catalyst components or less.
  • the hydrogenation catalyst is selected from the group consisting of supported Group 7, 8, 9, and 10 metals, preferably the hydrogenation catalyst selected from the group consisting of one or more of Ni, Pd, Pt, Co, Rh, Fe, Ru, Os, Cr, Mo, and W, supported on silica, alumina, clay, titania, zirconia, or mixed metal oxide supports.
  • a preferred hydrogenation catalyst is nickel supported on kieselguhr, or platinum or palladium supported on alumina, or cobalt-molydenum supported on alumina.
  • a high nickel content catalyst such as 60% Ni on Keiselguhr catalyst is used, or a supported catalyst with high amount of Co-Mo loading.
  • the polyalpha-olefin product is contacted with hydrogen and a hydrogenation catalyst at a temperature from 25 to 350 0 C, preferably 100 to 300 0 C.
  • the polyalpha- olefin is contacted with hydrogen and a hydrogenation catalyst for a time period from 5 minutes to 100 hours, preferably from 5 minutes to 24 hours.
  • the polyalpha-olefm is contacted with hydrogen and a hydrogenation catalyst at a hydrogen pressure of from 25 psi to 2500 psi, preferably from 100 to 2000 psi.
  • the hydrogenation process reduces the number of mm triad groups in a polyalpha- olefin by 1 to 80 %.
  • the hydrogenation process can be accomplished in a slurry reactor in a batch operation or in a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR), where the catalyst concentration is 0.001 wt% to 20 wt% of the PAO (or HVI-PAO) product, or preferably 0.01 to 10 wt% of the product.
  • Hydrogen and feed are added continuously to the reactor to allow for a certain residence time, usually 5 minutes to 10 hours, to allow complete hydrogenation of the unsaturated olefins and to allow proper conversion.
  • the amount of catalyst added is usually in slight excess, to compensate for the catalyst deactivation.
  • the catalyst and hydrogenated PAO and/or HVI-PAO are continuously withdrawn from the reactor.
  • the product mixture was then filtered, centrifuged or settled to remove the solid hydrogenation catalyst.
  • the catalyst can be regenerated and reused.
  • the hydrogenated PAO can be used as is or further distilled or fractionated to the right component if necessary.
  • the stir tank hydrogenation process can be carried out in a manner where a fixed amount of catalyst is maintained in the reactor, usually 0.1 wt% to 10% of the total reactant, and only hydrogen and PAO feed are continuously added at certain feed rate and only hydrogenated PAO was withdrawn from the reactor.
  • the hydrogenation process can also be accomplished by a fixed bed process, in which the solid catalyst is packed inside a tubular reactor and heated to reactor temperature.
  • Hydrogen and PAO and/or HVI-PAO feed can be fed through the reactor simultaneously from the top or bottom or countercurrently to maximize the contact between hydrogen, PAO/HVI-PAO and catalyst, and to allow best heat management.
  • the feed rate of the PAO and hydrogen are adjusted to give proper residence to allow complete hydrogenation of the unsaturated olefins in the feed and to allow desirable conversion of mm triads in the process.
  • the hydrogenated PAO fluid can be used as is or further distilled or fractionated to give the right component, if necessary.
  • This invention provides a liquid polyalpha-olefin composition which in embodiments may be characterized as comprising at least two types of branches with average branch length of at least 2.1, ranging from 2.1 to 12, preferably 3 to 11, more preferably 4 to 10, more preferably 4.5 to 9.5, more preferably 5 to 9, more preferably 5.5 to 8.5, more preferably 6 to 8, and most preferably 7 to 8.
  • the product is a liquid.
  • a "liquid” is defined to be a fluid that has no distinct melting point above O 0 C, preferably no distinct melting point above -2O 0 C, and has a kinematic viscosity at 100 0 C of 3000 cSt or less, preferably 1000 cSt or less and/or a kinematic viscosity at 40 0 C of 35,000 cSt or less, preferably 10,000 cSt or less.
  • the polymers may be further characterized as having a random monomer distribution along the polymer backbone. This randomness can be characterized by either nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) or mass spectrometry (MS) methods or by gas chromotagraphic (GC) analysis of light oligomer fractions.
  • Markovian statistics were developed to calculate PAO oligomer distributions based on transition probability matrix (P-matrix).
  • P-matrix transition probability matrix
  • a theoretical mass spectrum was determined by summation of all oligomer distribution and was compared against the experimental mass spectrum in the molecular weight range between 10 to 10,000 g/mol, preferably between 100 to 5000 g/mol, preferably between 400 and 1000 g/mol .
  • the P-matrix was adjusted in an iterative process to minimize the differences between the theoretical and experimental mass spectral data.
  • the product composition and structure (degree of randomness) can then be calculated from the optimized P-matrix elements.
  • Other parameters such as run length and feed reactivity ratio can also be deduced from the Markovian statistics.
  • zero order Markovian (or Bernoullian random) distribution showed the best fit with experimental data with ⁇ ranges from 0.93 to 1.05.
  • proton NMDR. spectroscopy - because of its intrinsically limited spectral dispersion - provides decreasing utility for determining the composition of the polymers as the lengths of the comonomers increase.
  • the greater resolution in the carbon spectra often provides multiple opportunities for determining the monomer composition.
  • the composition in two ways: the IB 2 (10.7 ppm) and IB 3+ (14.1 ppm) methyl resonances, and the backbone S 0K methylenes between the branches.
  • the methyl integral calculation is a direct measurement from the peak integrals, and may suffer from endgroup errors (e.g.
  • the S m methylene region (41-39 ppm), while also susceptible to end group effects in low molecular weight materials, shows three S m methylene peaks that were assigned to the C n -C n , C n -C 4 , and C 4 -C 4 structures.
  • the integrals of the three peaks were fit by least squares minimization to a Bernoullian model for monomer addition.
  • the Bernoullian model defines the likelihood of finding a specific monomer at any position in the chain as proportional to the overall molar concentration of that monomer and independent of the identity of neighboring monomers.
  • the excellent fit of the S ⁇ methylene peak areas with Bernoullian distribution indicates very little deviation from random monomer addition.
  • the adjustable parameter for the fits is the mole-percentage C 4 , which can be converted to a weight-percentage.
  • the fitting process is carried out by normalizing the sum of the S a01 methylene integrals to 1.0. Least squares mim ' mization seeks to minimize the square root of the sum of the squares (Diff) of the differences between the experimental dyad mole fractions (e.g. [AA] exp ) and the mole fractions predicted by the Bernoullian model (e.g. [AAJ Bem ), where the two comonomers in the polymer are A and B.
  • Diff the square root of the sum of the squares
  • Another method to deduce the randomness of the polymer composition is to analyze the rates of consumption of the starting alpha-olefms during polymerization.
  • the relative ratio of the fastest reacting monomer should not be more than 5 times faster than the slowest reacting monomer.
  • a more preferred ratio is less than 3, and the most preferred ratio is less than 2.
  • a ratio of 1 usually indicates a random copolymer
  • another possible method for deducing the randomness of the polymer composition is to calculate the ratio of the amount of one alpha-olefln in the product to the same alpha-olefin in the feed. For the polymers in the present invention, this ratio is within 0.5 to 3, and preferably 0.8 to 2, with the ratio of 1 as a completely random polymer.
  • the gas chromatographic (GC) method can also be extended to analyzing the whole or partial polymer composition using an internal standard method.
  • the gas chromatograph is a HP model equipped with a 60 meter DBl capillary column. A 1 microliter sample was injected into the column at 70°C, held for 0 minutes, program-heated at 10°C per minute to 300°C and held for 15 minutes. The content of the dimer, trimer, tetramer of total carbon numbers less than 50 can be analyzed quantitatively using the gc method.
  • the distribution of the composition from dimer, trimer and tetramer and/or pentamer can be fit to a Bernoullian distribution and the randomness can be calculated from the difference between the GC analysis and best fit calculation.
  • any of the polyalpha-olef ⁇ ns described herein have an M w (weight average molecular weight) of 100,000 or less, preferably between 200 and 80,000, more preferably between 250 and 60,000, more preferably between 280 and 50,000, and most preferably between 336 and 40,000 g/mol.
  • M w 's include those from 224 to 55,100, preferably from 392 to 30,000, more preferably 800 to 24,000, and most preferably 2,000 to 37,5000 g/mol.
  • Alternately preferred M w 's include 224 to about 6790, and preferably 224 to about 2720).
  • any of the alpha-olefins described herein preferably have a number average molecular weight (M n ) of 50,000 or less, more preferably between 200 and 40,000, more preferably between 250 and 30,000, or most preferably between 500 and 20,000 g/mol. More preferred M n ranges include 280 to 10,000, 280 to 4,000, 200 to 20,900, 280 to 10,000, 200 to 7000, 200 to 2000, 280 to 2900, 280 to 1700, and 200 to 500.
  • M n number average molecular weight
  • any of the polyalpha-olefms described herein preferably have an M w /M n or molecular weight dispersity (MWD) of greater than 1 and less than 5, preferably less than 4, more preferably less than 3, more preferably less than 2.5, and most preferably less than 2.
  • MWD molecular weight dispersity
  • M w and M n are measured by GPC method using polystyrene as calibration standard.
  • any PAO described herein may have a pour point of less than 10 0 C (as measured by ASTM D 97).
  • Pour point of any fluid is usually a function of fluid viscosity. Within a class of fluids, usually high viscosity fluids have high pour points, and low viscosity fluids have low pour points.
  • the pour point of the PAOs of this invention have pour points of less than 10°C, preferably less than 0 0 C, more preferably less than -10 0 C, more preferably less than -20 0 C, more preferably less than -25 0 C, more preferably less than -3O 0 C, more preferably less than -35 0 C, more preferably less than -50 0 C, and most preferably less than -70°C.
  • any PAO described herein may have a kinematic viscosity at 4O 0 C from about 4 to about 80,000 centi-Stokes (cSt) as measured by ASTM D 445 method, preferably from about 5 cSt to about 50,000 cSt at 40 0 C.
  • cSt centi-Stokes
  • any polyalpha-olefm described herein may have a kinematic viscosity at 100°C from about 1.5 to about 5,000 centi-Stokes (cSt), preferably from about 2 cSt to about 3,000 cSt, more preferably from about 3 cSt to about 1,000 cSt, and yet more preferably from about 8 cSt to about 500 cSt.
  • the PAOs have viscosities in the range of 2 to 500 cSt at 100 0 C in one embodiment, and from 2 to 3000 cSt at 100 0 C in another embodiment, and from 3.2 to 300 cS in another embodiment. (All viscosities are measured by ASTM D 445 method at 100°C, except when specified at other temperatures.).
  • any polyalpha-olefm described herein may have a kinematic viscosity at 100°C from 3 to 10 cSt and a flash point of 130 0 C or more (as measured by the ASTM D 92 method).
  • each of the per se well know API classifications I through V will include their "+” basestock, if available, unless the "+" basestock is specifically recited; in the claims the "+” form is considered part of the API group denoted), or lube base stocks derived from hydroisomerization of wax fraction from Fischer-Tropsch hydrocarbon synthesis from CO/H 2 syn gas, or other Group IV or Group V base stocks.
  • PAOs having KV 1O0 1 S from 3 cSt to 8 cSt are also preferred grades for high performance automotive engine oil or industrial oil formulations.
  • the PAOs of 40 to 1000 cS made in this invention and especially some high KV 10O grades up to 5000 cSt are specially desirable for use as blend stock with Gr I, II, III, III+, IV, V, or GTL derived lube base stocks for use in industrial and automotive engine or gear oil. They are also suitable for use in personal care application, such as blends with soap, detergents, other emollients, for use in personal care cream, lotion, sticks, shampoo, detergents, etc.
  • the PAOs have KV 1O0 1 S ranging from about 10 to about 3045 cSt.
  • the PAOs have KV 1 Qo 1 S ranging from about 20 to about 1500 cSt.
  • any polyalpha-olefin described herein may have a viscosity index (VI) of from 80 to 400, alternatively from 100 to 380, alternatively from 100 to 300, alternatively from 140 to 380, alternatively from 180 to 306, alternatively from 252 to 306, alternatively the viscosity index is at least about 165, alternatively at least about 187, alternatively at least about 200, alternatively at least about 252.
  • VI usually is a function of fluid viscosity. For many lower viscosity (KV 1O0 of 3 to 10 cSt) fluids made from 1-decene equivalent feeds, the preferred VI range is from 100 to 180.
  • Viscosity index is determined according to ASTM Method D 2270-93 [1998] and the VI is related to kinematic viscosities measured at 4O 0 C and 100 0 C using ASTM Method D 445 method. All kinematic viscosity values reported for fluids herein are measured at 100 0 C unless otherwise noted. Dynamic viscosity can then be obtained by multiplying the measured kinematic viscosity by the density of the liquid. The units for kinematic viscosity are m 2 /s, commonly converted to cSt. or centistokes (IcSt.
  • Lube VI and pour point are dependent on lube viscosity. For the most valid comparison of VI and pour point, it is best to compare fluids with similar viscosities at the same temperature.
  • One embodiment according to the present invention is a new class of polyalpha-olefins having a unique chemical composition which is characterized by a high percentage of unique tail-to-tail connections at the end position of the polymer.
  • the new poly-alpha-olefins after hydrogenation when used by themselves or blended with another fluid, have unique lubrication properties. Or these new poly-alpha-olefins without hydrogenation can be further functionalized at the unsaturation position with other reagents, such as aromatics, maleic anhydride, etc.
  • tail-to-tail connection refers to a connection formed in the PAO oligomer in which the linear alpha-olefms incorporated into an oligomer are connected to one another via the alpha carbon, i.e., the methylene vinyl carbon of a linear alpha-olefin.
  • the polyalpha-olefins synthesized from the polymerization reaction contain unsaturation, which can be conveniently measured by bromine number (ASTM D 1159 or equivalent method) or NMR methods. Typically the bromine number will change as a function of the polymer molecular size or viscosity. The bromine number for the polymer will range from 70 to 0. When the bromine number is below 1 or 2, the product can be used as is, without further hydrogenation.
  • the polymers are then further hydrogenated with a hydrogenation catalyst and a high pressure of hydrogen gas to reduce the unsaturation to give product with a bromine number less than 0.3
  • Another embodiment according to the present invention is a new class of hydrogenated polyalpha-olefins having a unique chemical composition which is characterized by a high percentage of unique tail-to-tail connection at the end position of the polymer and by a reduced degree of isotacticity compared to the product before hydrogenation.
  • the PAOs produced according to this invention are typically dimer, trimer, tetramer or higher oligomers of any two monomers from C 3 to C 30 linear alpha-olefins.
  • an alpha-olefln with alkyl substituent at least 2 carbons away from the olefinic double bond such as 4-methyl-l-pentene
  • alpha-olefins containing aromatic substituents two carbons away from the olefins examples are 4-phenyl-l-butene or 6-phenyl-l-hexene, etc.
  • the PAOs produced herein are usually a mixture of many different oligomers.
  • the smallest oligomers from these alpha-olefins have carbon numbers ranging from C 6 to C 20 . These small oligomers are usually too light for most high performance fluids application. They are usually separated from the higher oligomers with carbon number of greater than C 20 (for example C 24 and higher are more preferred as high performance fluids). These separated C 10 to C 20 oligomer olefins or the corresponding paraffins after hydrogenation can be used in specialty applications, such as drilling fluids, solvents, paint thinner, etc., with excellent biodegradability, toxicity, viscosities, etc.
  • the fraction of C 20 to C 60 , or preferably C 24 to C 50 , or more preferably C 28 to C 45 , or most preferably C 30 to C 40 can be used as high performance fluids. Typically, they have superior performance attributes, making them beneficial for specific applications: such as lower viscosity for better fuel economy, better biodegradability, better low temperature flow properties, or lower volatility.
  • the higher viscosity products usually have much higher average degree of polymerization, and have very low amounts of C 24 and lower components.
  • These high viscosity fluids are excellent blend stocks for lube application to improve the viscosity. Because of their usually narrow molecular weight distribution, they have superior shear stability. Because of their unique chemical composition, they have excellent viscometrics and unexpected low traction properties.
  • These higher viscosity PAOs can be used as superior blend stocks. They can be blend stocks with any of the Group I, II, III, III+, GTL and Group V fluids, to give optimum viscometrics, solvency, high- and low- temperature lubricity, etc.
  • the finished formulated lubes can be used as automotive engine oils, gear oils, industrial oils, or grease.
  • proper additives including antioxidants, antiwear additives, friction modifiers, dispersants, detergents, corrosion inhibitors, defoamants, extreme pressure additives, seal swell additives, and optionally viscosity modifiers, etc.
  • the finished formulated lubes can be used as automotive engine oils, gear oils, industrial oils, or grease.
  • Description of typical additives and synthetic lubricants can be found in the book "Lubricant Additives” Chemistry and Applications, ed. L. R. Rudnick, Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, 2003, and Synthetic Lubricants and High-Performance Functional Fluids, 2 nd ed. By L R. Rudnick and R. L. Shubkin, Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, 1999.
  • the alpha-olefins used for all the experiments were purified by mixing 1 liter of un-treated raw material with 20 grams of activated 13X molecular sieve and 10 grams of de-oxygenation catalyst (a reduced copper catalyst) for at least two days inside a glove box. The molecular sieve and de-ox catalyst were then removed by filtration. This treated individual alpha-olefins were than combined to give the desirable composition.
  • this purification can be carried out by pumping a stream of the alpha- olef ⁇ ns, either alone or pre-mixed, through abed of activated 13X molecular sieve alone, or through a bed of activated 13X molecular siever followed by a bed of de-oxygenated catalyst, prior to entering reactor.
  • this purification can be carried out by pumping a stream of the alpha-olefins, either alone or pre-mixed, through a bed of activated 13X molecular sieve followed by a bed of activated alumina, prior to entering the reactor.
  • Example 1 An olefin mixture containing 18.4% 1-hexene, 22.3% 1- octene, 21.6% 1-decene, 16.8% 1-dodecene, 10.4% 1-tetradecene, 6.4% 1- hexadecene and 4% 1-octadecene was used as feed. This composition is similar to the linear alpha-olefins produced from a typical LAO plant. 30 grams of this olefin mixture and 0.522 gram of a toluene solution containing 20 mg of triisobutylaluminum (TIBA)/g of toluene were charged into a reactor.
  • TIBA triisobutylaluminum
  • a catalyst solution containing 11 grams toluene, 0.0133 grams TIBA stock solution, 0.30798 mg rac-dimethylsilylbis(tetrahydroindenyl) zirconium dichloride (A) and 0.5408 mg N,N-dimethylanilinium tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)borate (B) was added to the reactor with stirring while maintaining a temperature of 30°C. After 19 hours reaction time, the reaction was terminated by addition of 3 ml isopropanol, followed by washing with 120 ml 5% sodium hydroxide solution in water. The isolated organic layer was distilled at 160°C/l millitorr vacuum for two hours to remove light ends and to isolate the lube fraction. The total lube yield was 85%.
  • the recovered lube properties are summarized in Table 1.
  • Example 2 Similar to Example 1, except a metallocene containing 70% meso- and 30% racemic-dimethylsilylbis ⁇ etrahydroindenyl) zirconium dichloride (C) was used in the preparation.
  • Example 3 Similar to Example 1, except the reaction was carried out at 60°C.
  • Example 4 Similar to Example 2, except the reaction was carried out at 6O 0 C.
  • Example 5 An olefin mixture containing 33.6 grams 1-octene, 42.0 grams 1-decene and 50.4 grams 1-dodecene was charged into a round bottom flask and heated to 70°C under an N 2 atmosphere. A catalyst solution containing 2.34 grams 10 wt% MAO in toluene solution, 60 grams toluene and 3.7 mg of Catalyst A was added slowly to the olefin mixture while maintaining constant temperature. The reaction was continued for 4 hours. Gas chromatography showed that 94% of the starting olefins were converted. The reaction was quenched by addition of 3 ml isopropanol, followed by washing with 120 ml 5% sodium hydroxide solution in water. The isolated organic layer was distilled at 160°C/l millitorr vacuum for two hours to remove any light ends. The lube properties are summarized in Table 1.
  • Example 6 is a comparative example. An identical reaction was carried out as Example 5, except a pure 1-decene was used as feed. The lube properties are summarized in Table 1. This fluid in the lab flowability test remained a solid after warming up to room temperature.
  • Examples 1-5 demonstrated that one can produce lube base stocks of wide viscosity ranges with superior VI and pour points from wide range of mixed alpha-olefms, ranging from C 8 -C 12 to C 6 -C 18 . Compared with Example 6, the fluids made from mixed alpha-olefins as described in Example 1-5 had distinctly better flowability. These two examples demonstrated the advantages of using mixed alpha-olefins as feeds for this metallocene chemistry. [00168] Example 7.
  • Example 8 Similar to Example 1, except the feed composition was as described in Example 7.
  • Example 9 Similar to Example 7, except Catalyst C was used
  • Example 10 Similar to Example 1, except the feed composition was as described in Example 7, and the catalyst was Catalyst C.
  • Example 11 Similar to Example 7, except the reaction temperature was 60 0 C
  • Example 12 Similar to Example 8, except the catalyst was catalyst C and the reaction temperature was 60 0 C.
  • Figures 1 and 2 compare the VI and pour points of the lubes made from mixed olefins with those made from 1-decene. This graph shows that the mixed-olefin lubes have VI and pour points similar to the 1-decene-derived lubes.
  • Table 1 further demonstrate that these mixed-olefin-derived lube products demonstrated flowable behavior in the cooling/warming cycle test. These results are not expected from prior art. These fluids can be used as lubricant base stocks or as blend stocks with other lube base stocks to improve the properties of the latter.
  • Example 13 Similar to Example 7, except 0.308 mg of a catalyst meso- ethylenebis(l-indenyl)zirconium dichloride (Catalyst D) was used and reaction was carried out at 3O 0 C.
  • Catalyst D a catalyst meso- ethylenebis(l-indenyl)zirconium dichloride
  • Example 14 Similar to Example 13, except the reaction was carried out at
  • Example 15 Similar to Example 13, except 0.308 mg of a catalyst rac- ethylenebis(l-indenyl)zirconium dichloride (Catalyst E) was used.
  • Example 16 Similar to Example 15, except the reaction was carried out at
  • Examples 17 to 21 Similar to Example 1 or Example 5, except a mixture of 1- hexene and 1-tetradecene was used as feed. By adjusting the reaction temperature, we obtained 12-15 cSt fluids. Their properties and process data are summarized in Table 3. Examples 17 to 20 are polymers from mixed linear alpha-olefins (C 6 and C 14 ), and have superior VI and pour points. The reaction conversions were high and selectivity to lube products were above 75%. All these lube products have much higher VI than lube Example 21 made from pure 1-hexene.
  • Examples 23 to 25 used 1-hexene and 1-dodecene as feed.
  • Example 26 used 1-hexene and 1-hexadecene as feed. In all cases, the product lubes have excellent VI and pour points, exceeding the VI obtained with pure 1-hexene feed.
  • Example 39 To a 600 ml autoclave dried under nitrogen, was charged 16.7 grams of a mixture containing 60% 1-butene and 40% 2-butene and a solution containing 90 grams 1-dodecene, 0.262 gram triisobutyaluminum (TIBAL) and 1.72 mg catalyst A. The autoclave was heated to 60°C. A solution containing 20 gram toluene and 2.305 mg catalyst B was added into the autoclave. The reaction was continued for 6 hours and then quenched by addition of 1 ml isopropanol and 10 gram of activated alumina. The lube product was isolated by filtering and distillation under high vacuum to remove any light ends boiling below 150°C at 0.1 millitorr. The final product weighed 88 grams and properties are summarized in Table 7.
  • Example 43 Similar to Example 39, except 1-tetradecene was used as feed.
  • Example 44 Similar to Example 39, except 76.2 grams 1-hexadecene and 40 grams of a butene mixture containing 60% 1-butene and 40% 2-butene were used as feed.
  • Example 45 Similar to Example 39, except 73.2 grams 1-octadecene and 44.7 grams of a butene mixture containing 60% 1-butene and 40% 2-butene were used as feed.
  • Examples 46 and 47 Similar to Examples 42 and 43, except different amounts of pure 1-dodecene or 1-tetradecene and pure 1-butene were used as feeds. Data from Examples 39 to 47 are summarized in Table 7. These data demonstrate several key points: 1.
  • high quality fluids with high VI and superior point points were prepared by mixed feed from two LAOs, wherein one of them is an abundant 1-butene.
  • the mixed-olefm feeds can comprise LAO in and other internal olefins, such as Examples 39 to 45 demonstrate, that a mixed butene stream can be used just as well as a pure 1-butene (Examples 46 and 47).
  • the 13 C and 1 H NMR analysis of the product polymers demonstrated that the polymers are random copolymers with a random distribution index greater than 90%.
  • the product monomer compositions as calculated from 1 H and 13 C- NMR spectral data, and from the calculated Bernoullian compositions agree with each other, and with the feed olefin composition.
  • Such polymers are said to possess a high degree of randomness in the monomer distribution.
  • This randomness in a poryalpha-olefm is novel and contributes to the superior low temperature viscosity viscometrics.
  • Conventional Ziegler or Ziegler-Natta or supported chromium oxide catalysts usually would not have such high degree of randomness. 5.
  • Proton NMR analysis of these samples showed that a significant amount (10 to 20%) of the olefins are 1,2-disubstituted olefins.
  • the formation of such olefins most likely stems from tail-to-tail termination of the growing polyalpha-olefins. This unusual termination creates a unique unsaturation which may be beneficial for subsequent functionalization reactions or for providing a less branched lube component (after hydrogenation) with more desirable lube properties.
  • polyalpha-olefms of 40 to 90 cSt were made from 1-hexene and 1-dodecene.
  • the reaction conditions and lube properties are summarized in Table 9.
  • the 1-hexene and 1-dodecene contents in the polymer product were analyzed by 13 C NMR, and the results are also summarized in Table 9.
  • the mole fraction of 1-hexene in the products correlates very well with the mole fraction of 1-hexene in feed composition ( Figure 4). This high degree of correlation indicates that the polymers are highly random copolymers. These random copolymers have excellent VI and pour points.
  • Example 52 to 54 fluids were made from feed compositions similar to Example 21 A to D of prior art US Patent 4827073.
  • Figure 5 compares the pour points of the Example 52-54 fluids vs. prior art example 21 A to D. This graph shows that at the same viscosity, the fluids of this invention have much lower pour points.
  • the prior art examples have at least 10°C higher pour points. This is a clear indication that fluids made from this invention have more uniform monomer distribution and are advantageous than prior art samples.
  • Table 11 summarizes the wt% conversion of C6 to Cl 8 alpha- olefms and the relative conversion to 1-hexene by different metallocene catalyst systems.
  • the superior properties include one or more of: high VI, wide viscosity range, low pour points and other excellent low- temperature properties, low traction, superior oxidative stability, lubricant film- forming properties and superior shear stability, and the like. Surprisingly, some of these properties cannot even be achieved using fluids made from pure 1- decene.
  • the fluids made from the mixed olefins are excellent base stocks for use as the major components (for example, greater than 50%) in the formulation of automotive engine lubricants, transmission, and gear lubricants, industrial lubricants (including circulation lubricants, gear lubricants, hydraulic fluids, turbine oils, pump/compressor oils, refrigeration lubricants, metal-working fluids), aerospace lubricants and greases, etc.
  • major components for example, greater than 50%
  • industrial lubricants including circulation lubricants, gear lubricants, hydraulic fluids, turbine oils, pump/compressor oils, refrigeration lubricants, metal-working fluids
  • aerospace lubricants and greases etc.
  • the fluids made in this invention are also superior blend stocks (from 0.1 wt% to 95%, preferably 20 wt% to 80 wt %) with Group I to Group V fluids, and/or with GTL basestocks to give full-synthetic, semi-synthetic or part- synthetic lubricants for use in all possible lubricant applications, including automotive lubricants, industrial lubricants, and greases, as mentioned above. Because of their intrinsically superior properties, these inventive fluids can impart, sometimes synergistically, high performance properties to the finished blend product. Examples are the high shear stability, high VI, high film-forming properties, low-temperature viscosity, low traction, superior oxidative properties of the finished lubricants.
  • the PAOs disclosed in this invention are used in formulating lubricant compositions and greases, as described above. Whether in minor or in major amounts, they are further combined with an effective concentration of additives selected from typical lubricant composition additives such as antioxidants, antiwear agents, rust inhibitors, extreme pressure agents, anti-foamants, dispersants and VI improvers.
  • Greases are formulated by combining the base stock with a thickener such as a lithium soap or a polyurea compound and one or more grease additives selected from antioxidants, antiwear agents, extreme pressure agent and dispersants. More examples for formulations for products can be found in Lubricants and Lubrication, Ed. By T. Mang and W. Dresel, by Wiley-VCH GmbH, Weinheim 2001.

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Addition Polymer Or Copolymer, Post-Treatments, Or Chemical Modifications (AREA)
  • Lubricants (AREA)
  • Transition And Organic Metals Composition Catalysts For Addition Polymerization (AREA)
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