Process for preparing hexachlorocyclopentadiene

Abstract

There is disclosed a process for the production of hexachlorocyclopentadiene comprising the steps of: (a) reacting liquid cyclopentadiene and chlorine at a temperature of from about 0 to about 100 degrees centigrade until a minimum of four chlorine atoms has been added per mole of cyclopentadiene to form a first-stage product; (b) heating the resultant liquid reaction product of step (a) in a second stage at a temperature of from about 140 degrees centigrade to below about 200 degrees centigrade with chlorine in the presence of from about 0.0001 percent to about 5.0 percent (by weight) of a phosphorus compound until the reaction products of step (a) contain an average of about six chlorine atoms per molecule, based on cyclopentadiene starting material, wherein said phosphorus compound is ##STR1## wherein a, b, c, d, e, f, and g are integers independently selected from the group consisting of 0 and 1, and R.sup.1, R.sup.2, and R.sup.3, are independently selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, hydroxyl, flourine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, alkyl containing from about 1 to 12 carbon atoms, phenyl, and halophenyl; (c) vaporizing and heating the resulting reaction products of step (b) in a third stage in the presence of chlorine to a temperature of about 450 degrees centigrade until at least a major portion of said products are converted to hexachlorocyclopentadiene; and (d) recovering therefrom hexachlorocyclopentadiene.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.