Production Process for Refined Hydrogen Iodide
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^ ^ ^ ^ I ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ II ^ II ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ I ^ European Patent Office Office europeen des brevets EP 0 714 849 A1 EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION (43) Date of publication: (51) |nt CI.6: C01B7/13 05.06.1996 Bulletin 1996/23 (21) Application number: 95308524.8 (22) Date of filing: 28.11.1995 (84) Designated Contracting States: • Tanaka, Yoshinori DE FR GB NL Mobara-shi, Chiba (JP) • Omura, Masahiro (30) Priority: 28.11.1994 J P 292771/95 Mobara-shi, Chiba (JP) • Tomoshige, Naoki (71) Applicant: MITSUI TOATSU CHEMICALS, Mobara-shi, Chiba (JP) INCORPORATED Tokyo (JP) (74) Representative: Nicholls, Kathryn Margaret et al MEWBURN ELLIS (72) Inventors: York House • Utsunomiya, Atsushi 23 Kingsway Takaishi-shi, Osaka (JP) London WC2B 6HP (GB) • Sasaki, Kenju Mobara-shi, Chiba (JP) (54) Production process for refined hydrogen iodide (57) A process for producing refined hydrogen io- amount of which is at least 1/3 (weight ratio) relative to dide by contacting crude hydrogen iodide with a zeolite the amount of the zeolite, to convert impurities of sulfur is disclosed. Crude hydrogen iodide is obtained by re- components contained in the zeolite to hydrogen ducing iodine with a hydrogenated naphthalene, where- sulfide, thereby removing the sulfur components. The in all of iodine is dissolved in advance in a part of the kind of the zeolite is an A type zeolite (an average pore hydrogenated naphthalene to prepare an iodine solu- diameter: 3 angstrom, 4 angstrom or 5 angstrom) or a tion, and the reaction is carried out while adding contin- mordenite type zeolite. Further, an activated carbon uously or intermittently the above solution to the balance may be combined with the zeolite at the rear stage there- of the hydrogenated naphthalene; and the same oper- of. ation may be repeated in succession using unreacted Crude hydrogen iodide is produced at good yield hydrogenated naphthalene and fresh iodine. The zeolite and refined to refined hydrogen iodide having a high pu- is contacted in advance with crude hydrogen iodide, the rity (organic components: 0.2 ppm by volume or less, water: 0.1 ppm by volume or less). O) ^- 00 o a. LU Printed by Jouve, 75001 PARIS (FR) EP 0 714 849 A1 Description The present invention relates to a production process for hydrogen iodide, more specifically to a process in which iodine of a raw material is efficiently reacted to obtain crude hydrogen iodide at a good yield, and then the crude 5 hydrogen iodide is refined to produce high purity hydrogen iodide. Hydrogen iodide is used as a synthetic raw material for various iodides, medical intermediates or a reducing agent. Further, in recent years, it is specially spotlighted as an etching agent in a semiconductor field and is an industrially useful substance. Hydrogen halides are widely utilized as the etching agent. Among them, hydrogen iodide is paid attention in terms of the high etching performance thereof. 10 The process of the present invention is used, for example, for obtaining hydrogen iodide used in a semiconductor production field. In recent years, it is particularly recognized in a semiconductor field that hydrogen iodide is a substance having a very good etching performance. Hydrogen iodide to be used in such field is required to have a purity as high as 99.99 to 99.999 and to have no possibility of containing phosphorus and sulfur unlike reagents for ordinary chemical reactions. is Conventional synthetic methods of hydrogen iodide are disclosed in Mellors Comprehensive Treatise on Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry, Supplement 2, Part 1 edited by J. W. Mellor, p. 170 (1960), published by Longmans Co., Ltd. Among them, however, a method in which phosphorus or a phosphorus compound is used as a reducing agent to convert iodine to hydrogen iodide has the possibility that the phosphorus compound is mixed in the product, and a method in which iodine is reduced with hydrogen sulfide in the presence of water has a defect that a lot of water is 20 mixed because of an aqueous reaction system. In addition to the above methods, available are a method of reducing iodine in phosphinic acid or sulfur dioxide- water system (U. S. Patent 4,089,940) and a method in which iodine is hydrogenated in the presence of rhodium or iridium used as a catalyst (Japanese Patent Publication No. 54-43480). However, every method employs an aqueous reaction system, and therefore a lot of water is mixed in a hydrogen iodide gas. In a non-aqueous reaction system in 25 which a platinum catalyst is used to hydrogenate catalytically iodine (E. R. Caley M. G. Burforal, Inorganic Synthesis Vol. 1 , p. 1 59 (1 939), and the preceding publication edited by J. W. Mellor), the reaction temperature is as high as 300 to 500°C. In addition thereto, this method has a defect that the reaction is slow and the conversion rate to hydrogen iodide and the yield thereof are low, and therefore it is not so suitable as an industrial production process for hydrogen iodide. 30 On the other hand, a process for industrially producing high purity hydrogen iodide includes a process in which iodine is reduced with organic reducing agents. A literature in which a process for producing hydrogen iodide with organic reducing agents such as tetrahydro- naphthalene is disclosed includes, for example, C. J. Hoffman, Inorganic Syntheses Collective Vol. VII, p. 180 (1963). It is described that in this process iodine is added 1/37 times as less equivalent as tetrahydronaphthalene at 200°C or 35 higher to react with tetrahydronaphthalene, whereby hydrogen iodide can be prepared at a yield of 90 %. However, according to researches made by the present inventors, this process involves some problems. That is, since a lot of iodine vapor besides hydrogen iodide is generated from the liquid during the reaction, iodine of the raw material is not only liable to be lost but also iodine is mixed in the resulting hydrogen iodide to reduce the purity of the product, and in view of the industrial production facilities, the large-scaled treating facilities for preventing a harmful 40 iodine vapor from diffusing to the outside of the system are required to be installed. Further, in this reaction vapor is generated and it is very difficult to control the amount of a hydrogen iodide gas generating from the reaction liquid, so that there is a possible risk that the reaction runs away to generate a lot of hydrogen iodide for short time. Further, since overexcessive tetrahydronaphthalene is used 37 times as much equivalent as iodine, a waste liquid 45 containing a lot of unreacted tetrahydronaphthalene remains after the reaction. That is, only a part of a lot of tetrahy- dronaphthalene is consumed in this process, and a volume efficiency is very poor and uneconomical. Further, since a waste liquid containing unreacted tetrahydronaphthalene is inevitably required to be treated, it is difficult to employ the process as it is as a process for producing hydrogen iodide industrially. Even if these problems would be solved, resulting hydrogen iodide is usually crude hydrogen iodide containing at so least about 0.5 % of impurities such as water and organic components and is inadequate for using in a semiconductor field. Accordingly, it has to be refined furthermore. However, techniques for removing impurities contained in hydrogen iodide to obtain hydrogen iodide having a high purity have not been known at all up to now. With respect to a method of refining gas other than hydrogen iodide, for example, only the following methods are 55 disclosed. That is, there are disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-209902, a method in which nitrogen contained in hydrogen is removed with a mordenite type zeolite subjected to calcium ion treatment; in U. S. Patent 4,557,921 , a refining method of silicon tetrafluoride, in which a mordenite type zeolite is used to remove impurities such as sulfur 2 EP 0 714 849 A1 dioxide and hydrogen halides; in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-29003, a refining method of silicon hydride, in which a 5A type zeolite is used to remove impurities such as phosphines; in U. S. Patent 5,051,117, a method of removing halosilanes contained in hydrogen with a zeolite; in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-330916, a method in which a synthetic zeolite subjected to hydrophobicity treatment is used to remove organic components contained in 5 air; and in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-32601 , a refining method of hydrogen bromide, in which a zeolite is used to remove impurities such as carbon dioxide, hydrogen chloride, oxygen, and nitrogen. Desirably, embodiments of the present invention provide not only a process free of the defects in the conventional processes described above in producing hydrogen iodide, but also a process in which impurities contained in hydrogen iodide are removed to be useful in a semiconductor field and which is industrially suitable for obtaining high purity 10 hydrogen iodide. Intensive investigations made by the present inventors with a view to achieving the subjects described above have resulted in finding that it is very effective to carry out the reaction while adding continuously or intermittently iodine to tetrahydronaphthalene instead of reacting with heating a mixed liquid or a suspended liquid of iodine and tetrahydro- naphthalene as is the case with the conventional processes described above, and further that the reaction goes on is almost in the same way even when not only tetrahydronaphthalene but also other hydrogenated naphthalene are used. In addition, it has been found that when iodine is added again to the reaction liquid after the preceding reaction, hydrogen iodide corresponding to the amount of iodine added is produced.