Polymerization utilizing a catalyst comprising a metal, a metal halide, and a metal oxide

Claim 1

A PROCESS FOR PRODUCING A NORMALLY SOLID POLYMER WHICH COMPRISES CONTACTING ETHYLENE WITH AN INERT LIQUID REACTION MEDIUM CONTAINING A CATALYST PREPARED BY MIXING (A) A MEMBER OF THE GROUP CONSISTING OF ALKALI METALS AND AKALINE EARTH METALS AND (B) AN ALUMINUM HALIDE SELECTED FROM THE GROUP CONSISTING OF ALUMINUM TRICHLORIDE, ALUMINUM TRIBROMIDE AND ALUMINUM CHLOROBROMIDES THE AMOUNT OF (A) BEING BETWEEN 1 AND ABOUT 30 CHEMICAL EQUIVALENTS PER MOLE OF ALUMINUM HALIDE WITH (C) A SUPPORTED CATALYST COMPRISING ESSENTIALLY A MINOR PROPORTION OF AN OXIDE OF A METAL SELECTED FROM THE CLASS CONSISTING OF GROUP 5A AND GROUP 6A OF THE PERIODIC TABLE AND MIXTURES THEREOF EXTENDED UPON A MAJOR PROPORTION OF AN INERT SOLID SUPPORTING MATERIAL COMPRISING A DIFFICULTLY REDUCIBLE METAL OXIDE THE WEIGHT RATIO OF (A) PLUS (B) TO(C) BEING IN THE RANGE OF FROM ABOUT 0.01 TO ABOUT 5.0 AND SUPPORTED CATALYST BEING PRESENT IN AN OPERATIVE AMOUNT BETWEEN ABOUT 0.001% AND ABOUT 20% BY WEIGHT BASED ON THE WEIGHT OF ETHYLENE, EFFECTING SUCH CONTACTING UNDER SUPERATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE AT A SUITABLE POLYMERIZATION TEMPERATURE BETWEEN ABOUT 20*C. AND ABOUT 250*C. AND RECOVERING SAID NORMALLY SOLID POLYMER SO PRODUCED.