Patent ID: 8221593

Claim:
A continuous, industrial process for preparing high-purity silicon tetrachloride or high-purity germanium tetrachloride, comprising: vaporizing contaminated silicon tetrachloride or contaminated germanium tetrachloride to obtain a gaseous stream; passing the gaseous stream in a flow direction opposite to the force vector of gravity through a plasma reactor; treating the contaminated silicon tetrachloride or contaminated germanium tetrachloride with a cold plasma to obtain a purified silicon tetrachloride or purified germanium tetrachloride; and isolating the purified silicon tetrachloride or purified germanium tetrachloride by fractional distillation, wherein the contaminated silicon tetrachloride or contaminated germanium tetrachloride comprises at least one hydrogen containing compound, and the plasma reactor comprises as components: a dielectric; a high voltage electrode; and a grounded metallic heat exchanger; wherein the dielectric is mechanically self-stabilized by an arrangement in which longitudinal axes of the dielectric, of the high-voltage electrode and of the grounded, metallic heat exchanger are oriented parallel to one another and at the same time parallel to the force vector of gravity.