Patent ID: 8053571

Claim:
A cyclization process, comprising: a) providing a reaction system comprising one or more reactants in a reaction medium, wherein: (i) at least one of the reactants is a linear precursor that participates in an oligomerization process, which oligomerization process produces, in addition to oligomers, one or more oligomerization byproducts, (ii) the oligomerization process proceeds to a desired degree of oligomerization to form a desired oligomer before the desired oligomer can be either cyclized to form a desired cyclic product, or undergo further oligomerization to form one or more undesired oligomers, and (iii) the degree of oligomerization can be controlled in such a manner as to increase yields of the desired oligomer, and decrease yields of said one or more undesired oligomers, by adding a first amount of said one or more extraneous reaction byproducts, and can increase yields of at least one of said one or more undesired oligomers, and decrease yields of said desired oligomer, by adding a second amount of said one or more extraneous reaction byproducts, b) adding said first amount of said one or more extraneous oligomerization byproducts into the reaction medium, so as to increase oligomerization to said desired degree to form said desired oligomer, and decrease further oligomerization to form said undesired oligomer(s), relative to the amount of further oligomerization that would be observed in a corresponding reaction medium to which said one or more extraneous oligomerization byproducts is not added, or said second amount of said one or more oligomerization byproducts is added; and c) cyclizing the desired oligomer to form a desired cyclic reaction product.