Catalyst coaxed to make branched α-olefins

Description Process conditions allow a titanium catalyst to add just two ethylene molecules to an α-olefin Linear and branched α-olefins are an important class of chemicals that are used for making polyolefins, detergents, plasticizers, and lubricants, as well as other products, and are made in quantities that exceed 3.2 million tonnes per year (1). These α-olefins, which have been produced on an industrial scale for almost a century (2), are typically made in processes that generate a broad distribution of products. More recently, on-purpose technologies have been developed to synthesize particular linear α-olefins. By contrast, branched α-olefins are produced in nonselective processes such as fluid catalytic cracking and oligomerization of olefins with acid-based or transition metal catalysts (3, 4). On page 1021 of this issue, Dietel et al. (5) now add to the collection of on-purpose α-olefin technologies with their report of a method for selectively synthesizing branched α-olefins.