Andreas Ehrmaier

PhD student

Catalysis Research Center and Chemistry Department

Technische Universität München

Lichtenbergstraße 4

85748 Garching, Germany

Curriculum:

Research:

Butene is a side product in the catalytic cracking processes. Since the 1950’s the technical needs for it increased, and so the butene fraction gained in interest. Besides the probably largest valorization process, the alkylation with i-butane towards highly branched C8 olefins, the formation of linear dimers became interesting, as well, especially for the production of PVC plasticizers. In general, dimerization of 1-butene is known to occur over solid acid catalysts. The formation of linear dimers, on the other hand, was reported to occur over homogeneous Ni complexes, involving a coordinative mechanism, which was adapted successfully to solid Ni catalysts as well. For my work, nickel exchanged zeolite catalysts are used for performing a 1-butene dimerization in liquid phase. It is the aim of this project to understand the catalytic steps and push the reaction towards a high selectivity for linear dimers.