Chromium aerogel method of producing same and fluorinating process utilizing same

Abstract

Chromium(III) oxide and hydroxide aerogels are produced by the reaction of chromium(VI) oxide with a solvent which is reducing to chromium(VI), such as methanol, heating the solution to hypercritical conditions, and venting the solvent hypercritically. The product aerogels exhibit surface areas above 400 m.sup.2 /g, pore volumes of at least 2 cm.sup.3 /g and a substantially uniform pore size distribution. Also disclosed is a unique process which employs high pore volume, high surface area chromium(III) oxide or hydroxide as a fluorination catalyst. More particularly, reaction of C.sub.2 Cl.sub.3 F.sub.3 with HF over these catalysts produced high yields of C.sub.2 Cl.sub.2 F.sub.4 and C.sub.2 ClF.sub.5.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.