Oligomerisation of olefinic compounds in the presence of an oligomerisation catalyst, and a catalyst activator including a halogenated organic group (US8134038B2)

According to the present invention there is provided a process for producing an oligomeric product by the oligomerisation of at least one olefinic compound, by contacting the at least one olefinic compound with the combination of an oligomerisation catalyst and a catalyst activator. The catalyst activator is a compound which includes at least one halogenated organic group which is bound to one or more binding atoms selected from the group consisting of a group 5A atom and a group 6A atom, which one or more binding atoms are in tum bound to a central atom selected from the group consisting of a group 3A atom, and a group 3B to 7B transition metal atom. The oligomerisation catalyst includes the combination of i) a source of a transition metal; and ii) a ligating compound of the formula (R¹ )mX¹(Y)X²(R²)n The invention also relates to a combination of an aligomerisation catalyst and a catalyst activator as set out above and to the use of such a combination in an oligomerisation process.