Patent ID: 8119850

Claim:
A method of producing an unsaturated hydrocarbon compound, comprising: dimerizing an α-olefin in the presence of a catalyst comprising a metallocene compound (A) and an oxygen-containing organometallic compound modified with a halogen-containing compound (B); wherein: the metallocene compound (A) is a compound represented by general formula (1) Q a (C 5 H 5-a-b R 1 b )(C 5 H 5-a-c R 2 c )M 1 XY (1) wherein: Q represents a connecting group for crosslinking two conjugated 5-membered ring ligands (C 5 H 5-a-b R 1 b ) and (C 5 H 5-a-c R 2 c ); each of R 1 and R 2 independently represents a hydrocarbon group, a halogen atom, an alkoxy group, a silicon-containing hydrocarbon group, a phosphorus-containing hydrocarbon group, a nitrogen-containing hydrocarbon group, or a boron-containing hydrocarbon group; each R 1 and R 2 may be the same or different from one another when plural groups are present and may form a ring structure by bonding with one other; a is 0, 1 or 2; each of b and c is independently an integer of 0 to 5 when a=0, an integer of 0 to 4 when a=1, and an integer of 0 to 3 when a=2; M 1 represents a transition metal from Group 4 of the periodic table; and each of X and Y independently represents a covalent bond ligand or an ionic bond ligand, and X and Y may be bonded with each other; the oxygen-containing organometallic compound modified with the halogen-containing compound (B) is obtained by modifying an oxygen-containing organometallic compound represented by at least one of general formula (2) and general formula (3) with a halogen-containing compound wherein: each of R 8 to R 14 independently represents an alkyl group having 1 to 8 carbon atoms: each of A 1 to A 5 independently represents a metal element from Group 13 of the periodic table; each of h to k is independently a number of 0 to 50; and each of (h+i) and (j+k) is larger than 1; and the halogen-containing compound is a halogenated alkylaluminium compound represented by general formula (4) R 15 n AlX 1 3-n (4) wherein: R 15 represents a hydrocarbyl group having 1 to 20 carbon atoms or an organometalloid group; X 1 represents a halogen atom; and n satisfies the relation 0<n<3.