Development of a new reactor for combined comminution and chemical reaction

The combining of the two process steps comminution and chemical reaction is realized in a newly developed apparatus, the so-called reaction-mill. It is an up to 450 degrees C heatable vibration-mill, that is resistant to pressures up to 2 MPa and that has a gas inlet and outlet for running heterogeneous chemical reactions during the process of comminution. The possible accelerations of the vibration-mill exceed up to 65 g and relative amplitudes of maximum 0.14 are adjustable. The advantage of the combination of the two process steps is the utilization of the effects of comminution exceeding the changes in the dispersity of the solid. The examined heterogeneous non-catalytic gas-solid reaction is the conversion of metallurgical grade (MG) silicon with gaseous hydrogen chloride to give trichlorosilane and silicontetrachloride. The examinations of the combined hydrochlorination and comminution have shown, that the induction periods in the starting phase of the reaction, carried out singularly, can be reduced to a minimum. Furthermore it could be noticed, that the lower temperature limit, which is necessary to start the reaction, could be lowered from 300 degrees C to 100 degrees C and that the selectivity of the reaction products is influenced by the mechanical energy. On one hand the effects are explained by the changes in the dispersity of the solid during comminution and on the other hand by a mechanical activation of the MG silicon.