Reactor, plant and industrial process for the continuous preparation of high-purity silicon tetrachloride or high-purity germanium tetrachloride

A continuous, industrial process for preparing high-purity silicon tetrachloride or high-purity germanium tetrachloride, comprising:

• vaporizing contaminated silicon tetrachloride or contaminated germanium tetrachloride to obtain a gaseous stream;
• passing the gaseous stream in a flow direction opposite to the force vector of gravity through a plasma reactor;
• treating the contaminated silicon tetrachloride or contaminated germanium tetrachloride with a cold plasma to obtain a purified silicon tetrachloride or purified germanium tetrachloride;
• and
• isolating the purified silicon tetrachloride or purified germanium tetrachloride by fractional distillation,
• wherein
• the contaminated silicon tetrachloride or contaminated germanium tetrachloride comprises at least one hydrogen containing compound, and
• the plasma reactor comprises as components:
• a dielectric;
• a high voltage electrode;
• and
• a grounded metallic heat exchanger;
• wherein
• the dielectric is mechanically self-stabilized by an arrangement in which longitudinal axes of the dielectric, of the high-voltage electrode and of the grounded, metallic heat exchanger are oriented parallel to one another and at the same time parallel to the force vector of gravity.