• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.619-623
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• 1998

The influences of reaction temperature, HF/DCM mole ratio, contact time and catalyst type on activity and selectivity of difluoromethane synthesis via hydrofluoriation of dichloromethane over fluorinated catalyst have been studied. It has been found that fluorinated $Cr/Al_2O_3$ catalysts, show better performance compared to pure fluorinated $Al_2O_3$ catalyst and then, non-treated catalysts demonstrate better than catalysts pretreated with hydrogen and air. The results show that the optimum reaction conditions are found as follows : reaction temperature at $340^{\circ}C$, mole ratio of HF/DCM 5 or above and contact time 20 sec. or above. With these conditions the maximum attainable yield of difluoromethane has been found to be greater than 80%. In particular, the activity and the selectivity of difluoromethane do not change with the reaction time on stream up to 8 hours.