Patent ID: 8704022

Claim:
A process for producing high purity exo-alkenylnorbornene (ANB) from an endo/exo-ANB mixture comprising: charging the endo/exo-ANB mixture into a reaction vessel; heating the endo/exo-ANB mixture to a temperature effective to cause a Cope rearrangement reaction to occur thereby forming a reaction mixture, the Cope rearrangement reaction comprising converting endo-ANB into a Cope rearrangement reaction product, wherein the endo-ANB conversion is at least about 99%; controlling vapor pressure of the reaction mixture in an open system to allow release of lights from the open system while retaining in the reaction mixture endo-ANB, exo-ANB, and heavies, said controlling the vapor pressure comprises controlling temperature and pressure of the reaction vessel, the heavies comprising the Cope rearrangement reaction product, such that the reaction products from the lights are reduced by more than 50% when compared with the reaction products formed from the lights when said vapor pressure is not controlled; and separating the high purity exo-ANB in the reaction mixture from the retained heavies by distillation.