Texas Alkyls, Inc.

Scott H Eidt

Dennis L Deavenport

Spencer C Watson

Nam H Tran

George Charles Heilig

Dimethylzinc is prepared by heating a dimethylaluminum halide, e.g., dimethylaluminum chloride, and a dialkylzinc, e.g., diethylzinc, with distillative removal of dimethylzinc from the reaction mixture which results therefrom.

Preparation of dimethylzinc

Novel organoaluminum compounds having the general formula: ##STR1## wherein Z is (--CH.sub.2 CH.sub.2 --); X is chloro-, bromo-, or iodo-, and n is 1, except that when X is chloro-, n is a number from 2 to 20, are disclosed. The compounds are prepared by reacting aluminum metal with an anhydrous aluminum trihalide and ethylene. The compounds are useful as co-catalysts for Ziegler polymerizations.

Compounds

An economically attractive Redistribution Process for the production of trimethylaluminum and numerous alkylaluminum bromides and iodides is described herein. The Redistribution Process is a chemical reequilibration reaction which consists of forming a mixture of a methylaluminum bromide or iodide with aluminum trialkyl followed by separating by distillation, trimethylaluminum from the alkylaluminum bromides or iodides. The preferred method for separating the mixture of methylaluminum bromide or iodide and aluminum trialkyl into trimethylaluminum and alkylaluminum bromide or iodide is fractional distillation. Trimethylaluminum and the alkylaluminum bromides and iodides are valuable commercial materials for use as co-catalysts for the polymerization of various unsaturated hydrocarbons. Trimethylaluminum is also employed as a methylating agent, a chemical intermediate and a pyrophoric fuel.

Process for the simultaneous production of trimethylaluminum and

A redistribution process for the simultaneous production of dimethylaluminum chloride and numerous alkylaluminum chlorides is described herein. The redistribution process is a chemical reaction which consists of first forming a mixture of methylaluminum dichloride and at least one alkylaluminum compound selected from the group consisting of an aluminum trialkyl, a dialkylaluminum chloride, and an alkylaluminum sesquichloride, where 'alkyl' refers to a group containing 2 to 16 carbon atoms. The relative amounts of the mixture components are fixed such that the mixture has a chlorine-to-aluminum atomic ratio of 1.0 to 2.0. The mixture thus formed is next subjected to a fractional distillation, in which a first fraction is obtained, consisting of dimethylaluminum chloride, essentially free of trimethylaluminum, methylaluminum dichloride, and other impurities. The distillation residue consists essentially of alkylaluminum chlorides, which are valuable commercial materials. Dimethylaluminum chloride itself is useful as a methylating agent, a polymerization cocatalyst, a chemical intermediate, and a pyrophoric fuel.

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Seabrook, TX, United States of America

Scott H Eidt