Pathway to Vinyl Chloride Production via Dehydrochlorination of 1,2-Dichloroethane in Ionic Liquid Media

We present a novel approach to the dehydrochlorination of 1,2-dichloroethane using ionic liquid catalysts. After screening a wide range of ionic liquids, tetraalkylphosphonium chlorides show the best results, with much higher conversions compared with those of the current industrial “pyrolysis” process. This breakthrough approach has the remarkable advantage of operating at lower temperature while maintaining an excellent selectivity. This method shows high potential as a greener alternative for the current industrial process.status: publishe

Pathway to Vinyl Chloride Production via Dehydrochlorination of 1,2-Dichloroethane in Ionic Liquid Media

We present a novel approach to the dehydrochlorination of 1,2-dichloroethane using ionic liquid catalysts. After screening a wide range of ionic liquids, tetraalkylphosphonium chlorides show the best results, with much higher conversions compared with those of the current industrial “pyrolysis” process. This breakthrough approach has the remarkable advantage of operating at lower temperature while maintaining an excellent selectivity. This method shows high potential as a greener alternative for the current industrial process

High-k dielectrics and metal gates for future generation memory devices

The requirements and development of high-k dielectric films for application in storage cells of future generation flash and Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) devices are reviewed. Dielectrics with k-value in the 9-30 range are studied as insulators between charge storage layers and control gates in flash devices. For this application, large band gaps (> 6 eV) and band offsets are required, as well as low trap densities. Materials studied include aluminates and scandates. For DRAM metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors, aggressive scaling of the equivalent oxide thickness (with targets down to 0.3 nm) drives the research towards dielectrics with k-values > 50. Due to the high aspect ratio of MIMCap structures, highly conformal deposition techniques are needed, triggering a substantial effort to develop Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) processes for the deposition of metal gates and high-k dielectrics. Materials studied include Sr and Ba-based perovskites, with SrTiO3 as one of the most promising candidates, as well as tantalates, titanates and niobates