UV photochemical reaction
The UV light modules are housed in protection tubes made of quartz glass, which are inserted through nozzles in the
top of the vessel, where they are also connected to the power supply and the cooling system. These UV immersion
lamps have a power of 5 - 60 kW. Therefore, a cooling within the glass tube is required, otherwise the sensitive
molecules can be damaged by high surface temperatures. Industrial reactors are equipped with 4 to 20 of such glass
tubes. The glass tubes with their light sources are exposed to hydraulic and thermal loads in the stirred vessel.
A large number of chemical reactions are carried out at temperatures between 100 and 250 °C in order to achieve a fast reaction and thus high productivity. At these temperatures, however, decomposition processes already start with corresponding losses in yield and undesired by-products. With the help of catalysts, reactions can be activated even at lower temperatures, but are expensive to procure and to handle. Photochemistry offers an elegant alternative and allows new syntheses. Not heat or catalysts, but the energy of light activates the reaction, which can then take place at temperatures well below 100 °C and often even at room temperature. By this process, decomposition or by-products are reduced to a minimum or do not arise at all. Light instead of heat, this principle can be applied to a variety of syntheses such as chlorinations, sulfonations, sulfoxidations or nitrosylations.
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