Tuning C₆/C₈ selectivity in oligomerizations

Tuning C₆/C₈ selectivity of Cr-catalyzed oligomerization of ethylene by exploiting confinement effects

– New project since July 2022 –

In this funding period, we will transfer the concept of confinement-governed olefin-metathesis-based macrocyclization to confinement-governed oligomerization of small molecules. Here, the main aim is to exploit confinement effects to selectively produce trimeric or tetrameric products from ethylene, i.e., 1-hexene or 1-octene, respectively. To this end we will use immobilized Cr N-heterocyclic carbene catalysts that are robust and promising alternatives to existing Cr-complexes. We aim to exploit constrained geometries to selectively stabilize those transition geometries that lead to desired end products and we will leverage acidity, polarity and π-donating abilities of the support.