Supported Lewis acid catalysts for hydrocarbon conversion reactions
AssigneeExxon Chemical Patents Inc.
InventorsFrank Joung-yei Chen, Christophe Le Deore, Alain Guyot, Alain Louis Pierre Lenack, Jon Edmond Stanat
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Abstract
A supported Lewis acid catalyst, which comprises an inorganic oxide substrate having immobilized thereon at least one Lewis acid and a modifying agent containing at least one functional moiety capable of reacting with surface hydroxyl groups originally present on said substrate and which is effective as a catalyst for hydrocarbon conversion reactions including cationic polymerization, alkylation, isomerization and cracking reactions is disclosed.
Claims11
A supported Lewis catalyst that is free from added titanium-, vanadium-, hafnium- and zirconium-containing Ziegler polymerization components and is effective for catalyzing hydrocarbon conversion reactions, which comprises:
- an inorganic oxide substrate having immobilized thereon a catalytically effective amount of at least one Lewis acid catalyst component and a substantially non-catalytic organosilicon modifying agent containing at least one functional moiety capable of reacting with surface hydroxyl groups originally present on said substrate wherein about 5% to about 99% of said surface hydroxyl groups originally present on said substrate have been modified with said non-catalytic organosilicon agent to be non-reactive with said Lewis acid catalyst component;
- wherein said Lewis acid catalyst component is at least one component selected from the group consisting of halides, alkyl halides and alkyl compounds of aluminum, magnesium, tin and zinc, halides of boron and mixtures thereof;
- with the proviso that when said Lewis acid catalyst component is a magnesium compound it is used in combination with a stronger Lewis acid from said group.
A process for preparing a supported Lewis acid catalyst system that is free from added titanium-, vanadium-, hafnium- and zirconium-containing Ziegler polymerization components and is effective for catalyzing hydrocarbon conversion reactions, which comprises the steps of:
- (a) providing an inorganic, hydroxyl group-containing support;
- (b) contacting said support under conditions effective to react about 5% to about 99% of said hydroxyl groups present on said support, with a modifying agent comprising at least one organosilicon compound having a formula selected from the following formulas (1) and (2):
- (1) (R.sub.3 Si).sub.2 NH and
- (2) R.sub.n SiX.sub.m,
- wherein m is 1, 2, 3 or 4 and n is 3, 2, 1 or 0, respectively and the total of m+n is 4;
- X is a moiety chemically reactive with said hydroxyl groups of said support;
- and R is hydrogen or a hydrocarbon group;
- and
- (c) contacting said support from step (b) under conditions effective to react at least a portion of the unmodified hydroxyl groups originally present on said support with at least one Lewis acid catalyst component selected from the group consisting of halides, alkyl halides and alkyl compounds of aluminum, magnesium, tin and zinc, halides of boron and mixtures thereof, with the proviso that when said Lewis acid catalyst component is a magnesium compound it is used in combination with a stronger Lewis acid from said group.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.