Process for the preparation of arylmethane isocyanates and the purification of alkyl and haloalkyl isocyanates

Claim 1

A PROCESS FOR PREPARING ESSENTIALLY MONOMERIC ARYLMETHANE ISOCYANATES, COMPRISING CONTACTING AND REACTING AND A-HALOGENATED AROMATIC COMPOUND OF THE FORMULA R(CH(3-N)XN)M WITH AT LEAST MN MOLES OF A AROMATIC COMPOUND OF THE FORMULA R''H, AT A TEMPERATURE OF ABOUT 50 TO ABOUT 250*C. IN THE PRESENCE OF A FRIEDEL-CRAFTS CATALYST, WHEREIN X IS SELECTED FROM THE GROUP CONSISTING OF CL AND BR; M AND N ARE INDEPENDENTLY SELECTED FROM THE GROUP CONSISTING OF 1 AND 2; R IS SELECTED FROM THE GROUP CONSISTING OF UNSUBSTITUTED, EXCEPT AS DEFINED ABOVE, AND SUBSTITUTED PHENYL, PHENYLENE, NAPHTHYL, AND NAPHTHYLENE; AND R'' IS SELECTED FROM THE GROUP CONSISTING OF UNSUBSTITUTED AND SUBSTITUTED NAPHTHYL, ANTHRYL, 4-ARYLOXYPHENYL, 4-ALKOXYPHENYL, AND 4-ISOCYANATOPHENYL, THE SUBSTITUENTS FOR R AND R'' BEING SELECTED FROM THE GROUP CONSISTING OF CL, BR, C1-C4 AND -NCO WITH THE PROVISOS THAT THE SUM OF THE -NCO GROUPS IN R AND R'' MUST BE AT LEAST ONE AND THAT EACH -NCO GROUP IS SEPARATED FROM ANOTHER -NCO GROUP BY AT LEAST ONE RING POSITION, AND OBTAINING AS A RESULT THEREOF ARYLMETHANE ISOCYANTE.