cw CO2 laser-induced halogen exchange reaction between hexafluorobenzene and boron trichloride

The halogen exchange reaction between hexafluorobenzene (HFB) and boron trichloride, BCl3 initiated by a continuous-wave CO2 laser primarily affords chloropentafluorobenzene, C6F5Cl and dichlorofluoroborane, BCl2F. For the reaction initiation a number of rotational-vibrational lines of the vibrational 00°1→10°0 transition was used. With wavenumber radiation 977.21 cm-1 a faster V-V energy transfer between HFB and BCl3 molecules may occur. For this case the rate of the exchange reaction was observed to be by an order of magnitude higher compared to the reaction initiated by the laser radiation at 949.48 cm-1 and carried out under the identical absorption conditions.