Excitation of benzene vapor in a 15 kv. corona discharge reactor at atmospheric pressure and 45°C. gives an 8.5% conversion to identifiable products. This over-all yield is comparable to that reported for the glow discharge reactions of benzene initiated by radiofrequency and microwave energy sources. Low molecular weight products (up to C18) which have been quantitatively determined in this study include biphenyl, o-, m-, and p-terphenyl, phenylbenzylcycloalkenes, fulvene, 1,3 and 1,4-cyclohexadiene, cyclohexene, and acetylene. Approximately 80% of the product yield is a yellow polymeric material, largely soluble in benzene, with a major fraction having a molecular weight of 4,000. A phenyl and/or benzyl substituted cyclopentene system is indicated as the average repeating unit.
/^orona discharges (silent) have been used to initiate chemical reactions for well over 150 years with much of the early work being confined to inorganic gases (10).However, the only commercially sig nificant development over the years has been the process for synthesizing ozone (17) by subjecting oxygen to a corona discharge (ozonizer). Most early investigators encountered serious difficulties in studying the inter action of high voltage electricity with organic molecules. Equipment was unreliable and dangerous, and the complexity of the reaction product mass precluded definitive performance evaluation. Since World War II, technology has advanced to the point where high frequency power can be generated and controlled at reasonable cost and many new dielectric materials such as fused quartz, alumina, and mica mat are available (5).