Catalytic upcycling of polyolefins via versatile alkylaluminums
AssigneeIowa State University Research Foundation, Inc.
InventorsAaron David Sadow, Uddhav Kanbur
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Abstract
Disclosed herein is a process for the conversion of polymers, oligomers, or mixtures thereof into shorter alkanes, carboxylic acids, alcohols, alkyl halides or aldehydes. This process includes contacting the polymers, oligomers, or mixtures thereof with the compound of formula (I): Al(R1)3 (I) where R1 is independently selected at each occurrence thereof from the group consisting of H, aryl, C1-C8 alkyl, and C1-C8 alkoxy, as a reaction mixture, in the presence of a catalyst selected from the group consisting of a transition metal catalyst, a lanthanide series metal catalyst, or combinations thereof.
Claims20
A process comprising:
- providing one or more polymers, oligomers, or mixtures thereof;
- providing a compound of formula (I):
- Al(R1)3 (I),
- wherein
- R1 is independently selected at each occurrence thereof from the group consisting of H, aryl, C1-C8 alkyl, and C1-C8 alkoxy;
- contacting the polymers, oligomers, or mixtures thereof with the compound of formula (I), as a reaction mixture, in the presence of a catalyst having a formula (II):
- Met(R2)n@support (II),
- wherein
- Met is a metal selected from the group consisting of zirconium, titanium, hafnium, scandium, yttrium, lanthanum, and lutetium;
- R2 is independently selected at each occurrence thereof from the group consisting of H, C1-C10 alkyl, C5-C10 alkoxy, and BH4;
- n is an integer ranging from 1 to 3;
- and
- support is selected from the group consisting of silica, silica/alumina, and zeolites, under conditions effective to form alkanes, carboxylic acids, alcohols, alkyl halides, or aldehydes, which are shorter than the polymers, the oligomers, or the mixtures thereof;
- and
- recovering the formed shorter alkanes, carboxylic acids, alcohols, alkyl halides, or aldehydes.
A process comprising:
- providing one or more polymers, oligomers, or mixtures thereof;
- providing a compound of formula (I):
- Al(R1)3 (I),
- wherein
- R1 is independently selected at each occurrence thereof from the group consisting of H, aryl, C1-C8 alkyl, and C1-C8 alkoxy;
- contacting the polymers, oligomers, or mixtures thereof with the compound of formula (I), as a reaction mixture, in the presence of a catalyst having a formula (II):
- Met(R2)n@support (II),
- wherein
- Met is a metal selected from the group consisting of zirconium, titanium, hafnium, scandium, yttrium, lanthanum, and lutetium;
- R2 is independently selected at each occurrence thereof from the group consisting of H, C1-C10 alkyl, C5-C10 alkoxy, and BH4;
- n is an integer ranging from 1 to 3;
- and
- support is selected from the group consisting of silica, silica/alumina, and zeolites;
- under conditions effective to form an aluminum alkyl compound of formula (III):
- Al(R1)3-n(R3)n (III),
- wherein
- R3 is independently selected at each occurrence thereof from C12-C60 alkyls, which are shorter than the polymers, the oligomers, or the mixtures thereof;
- and
- n is an integer ranging from one to three.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.