Chemical process and apparatus utilizing a plasma

Claim 2

The method according to claim 1 in which there is formed a plasma of an inert gas and two reactants are fed into the plasma.

Claim 3

The method according to claim 3 in which the inert gas is argon.

Claim 4

The method according to claim 1 in which the reactants are boron halide and hydrogen.

Claim 5

The method according to claim 5 in which said boron halide is boron trichloride.

Claim 6

The method according to claim 5 in which the plasma is formed from a mixture of hydrogen and argon, and the boron halide is fed into the plasma.

Claim 7

The process for the preparation of finely divided elemental boron by reduction of a boron halide with hydrogen which comprises continuously passing a first stream of a gas which is one of said reactants through a reaction zone, forming a plasma of the gas within the reaction zone by inductive coupling, feeding a second stream of gas which is the other of said reactants into the plasma at a temperature of at least about 2, 000* C. at a point downstream of the center of the plasma in the direction of gas flow and at an angle counter to said gas flow thereby forming a gas stream containing elemental boron having a particle size of up to about 10 microns, rapidly cooling and separating the boron from the gas stream and recovering the boron.

Claim 8

The method according to claim 8 in which the gas stream forming the plasma is delivered to the reaction zone tangentially of the dIrection of gas flow through the reaction zone.

Claim 9

The method according to claim 8 in which the reactant fed into the plasma is delivered at an angle to the axis of gas flow.

Claim 10

The method according to claim 8 in which the first gas stream comprises argon and hydrogen and the second gas stream is the boron halide.

Claim 11

The method according to claim 11 in which said boron halide is boron trichloride.

Claim 12

Apparatus for carrying out a high-temperature reaction using an ionized gas which comprises a generally cylindrical dielectric reaction vessel having inlet means for the gas, a radio frequency induction coil surrounding a portion of said reaction vessel downstream of the inlet means so as to define therein a plasma-generating zone, inlet means for a reactant which means are arranged to deliver the reactant into the vessel along a path inclined to the axis of said vessel and counter to the direction of flow of gases on the side of the induction coil remote from said gas inlet, exit means for the reaction product which is in a straight path from said inlet means for the gas, and product separating means communicating with said exit means. 14 Apparatus as claimed in claim 13 in which the gas inlet is arranged to deliver gas tangentially to the direction of gas flow.