Patent ID: 7989670

Claim:
A process to produce a liquid poly-alpha olefin having a KV 100 of greater than 20 cSt to about 10,000 cSt comprising: a) contacting one or more alpha-olefin monomers having 3 to 24 carbon atoms with an unbridged substituted bis(cyclopentadienyl) transition metal compound represented by the formula: (Cp)(Cp*)M*X 1 X 2 wherein: M* is the metal center, and is a Group 4 metal; Cp and Cp* are the same or different cyclopentadienyl rings that are each bonded to M, and 1) both Cp and Cp* are substituted with at least one non-hydrogen substituent R group or 2) Cp is substituted with from two to five substituent R groups, each substituent group R being, independently, a radical group which is a hydrocarbyl, substituted hydrocarbyl, halocarbyl, substituted halocarbyl, silylcarbyl or germylcarbyl, or Cp and Cp* are the same or different cyclopentadienyl rings in which any two adjacent R groups are optionally joined to form a substituted or unsubstituted, saturated, partially unsaturated, or aromatic cyclic or polycyclic substituent; X 1 and X 2 are, independently, hydrogen, halogen, hydride radicals, hydrocarbyl radicals, substituted hydrocarbyl radicals, halocarbyl radicals, substituted halocarbyl radicals, silylcarbyl radicals, substituted silylcarbyl radicals, germylcarbyl radicals, or substituted germylcarbyl radicals; or both X are joined and bound to the metal atom to form a metallacycle ring containing from about 3 to about 20 carbon atoms; or both together can be an olefin, diolefin or aryne ligand; and a non-coordinating anion activator, and an alkyl-aluminum compound, where the molar ratio of transition metal compound to activator is 10:1 to 0.1:1, and the molar ratio of alkyl aluminum compound to transition metal compound is 1:4 to 4000:1, under polymerization conditions wherein: i) hydrogen is present at a partial pressure of 0.1 to 300 psi, based upon the total pressure of the reactor or the concentration of the hydrogen is from 1 to 30,000 ppm or less by weight; ii) wherein the alpha-olefin monomer(s) having 3 to 24 carbon atoms are present at 10 wt % or more based upon the total wt of the catalyst/activator/alkylaluminum compound solutions, monomers, and any diluents or solvents present in the reaction; iii) provided that ethylene is not present at more than 40 wt % of the monomers entering the reactor; and iv) the productivity of the process is greater than 4,650 grams of total product per gram of catalyst wherein the grams of catalyst is based on the amount of metal compound and activator; and b) obtaining a polyalpha-olefin having a KV 100 of greater than 20 cSt to about 10,000 cSt, and wherein the polyalpha-olefin has X wt % dimer or less, where X wt %=0.8×[231.55×(fluid Kv in cSt at 100° C) (−0.9046) ].