Production of organosilane by the direct reaction of silicon with methyl chloride

Abstract EN

The aim of this work is to study the production of organosilane by the catalytic reaction of methyl chloride (CH3Cl) with silicon (Si) and using copper (Cu) as catalyst in a fluidized bed reactor.

Gas chromatographic (GC) technique was used on-line for analysis of the reacted gas.

The experimental work was carried out using columns with dimensions 5 cm internal diameter and 50 cm height stainless steel used as a fluidized bed reactor.

Gas distributor was fitted at the bottom of column with 25 holes of 0.1 cm hole diameter.

The reaction started with experiments at different bed temperatures (200-400) oC and the catalyst used is only copper (Cu) in two different percent (10 % and 15 % of the silicon) in order to anticipate the optimum temperature and catalyst value required for the best conversion of organosilane, these two variables were kept constant for the remaining experiments.

Experiments were performed to reflect the effect of each of these variables : particle diameter, bed height and reacted gas velocity on the organosilane production.

It was found that organosilane conversion was the highest at 350 oC and 15 % copper.

The gas velocity at a value little more than minimum fluidization velocity is gave better conversion than low velocity that gave fixed bed or high velocity and that gave turbulent fluidization, higher level of contact mass, and finally higher particle diameter this gives homogenous fluidization concerning the reacted gas velocity.