Synthesis of Synthetic Lubricants by Trimerization of 1-Decene and 1-Dodecene with Homogeneous Chromium Catalysts

Abstract

The Cr‐catalyzed trimerization of 1‐decene and 1‐dodecene is a highly selective method to synthesize C30 and C36 olefins. After hydrogenation, these products display very attractive viscosity indices (VI's). Due to the high trimer selectivity of the reaction no additional work‐up is needed to separate C20, C24 or C40+ oligomers from the product prior to a potential use of these products in synthetic lubricants for automotive applications.

Advances in selective ethylene trimerisation – a critical overview

“…The analogous methyl-substituted triazacyclononane systems were shown to be incapable of trimerising higher alpha olefins under the same reaction conditions and the authors alluded to the importance of low steric demand of complexes for reactivity toward higher alpha olefins. Wasserscheid et al [51] have used triazacyclohexane complexes of Cr(III), activated by MAO, for the selective trimerisation of 1-decene and 1-dodecene. After hydrogenation, the C30 and C36 oligomeric products displayed the required viscosity indices as well as low pour points and low vapour pressures, making them attractive candidates for use as synthetic lubricants.…”

Novel pathways for fuels and lubricants from biomass optimized using life-cycle greenhouse gas assessment

“…VI is a much more important property, a high VI indicating that the viscosity of the base oil does not change strongly with temperature, which is a desirable property for lubricant base oils and a strong motivation for using PAOs in formulations. Our studies show that the VI of 7b was very similar to that of PAOs (123 vs. 124) (18), whereas VIs of 7a and 7c compared well with those of mineral oil blendstocks (66 and 94 vs. 80-120). These test cases show only a glimpse of the possibilities for additional tribology research for lubricant applications, and developing an understanding between molecular structure and properties could unlock a new class of lubricants.…”

Monocyclopentadienyl titanium catalysts: ethene polymerisation versus ethene trimerisation

“…Thus far it appears that the system is reluctant to catalyse the homotrimerisation of 1-alkenes such as propene or 1-hexene (unlike e.g. the 1,3,5-triazacyclohexane chromium catalysts investigated by Köhn et al [59][60][61]), although 1-hexene is readily cotrimerised with two molecules of ethene to produce mainly 5-methyl-1-nonene.…”