The first report of the production of hexafluoro-1,3-butadiene (C4F6) was in 1947 by Phelan, Prober, Reed and co-workers while researching the fluorination of C2 perhalogen olefin. (
Ind. Eng. Chem. 1947, 39, 401-4
). Haszeldine reported one of the first initial syntheses of hexafluoro-1,3-butadiene (C4F6) in 1952 using treatment of CF2=CFCl with ICl then Hg and dehalogenation to produce the target compound (
J. Chem. Soc.1952, 4423-4431
). Ruh, Davis and Allswede (Dow Chemical) developed one of the first commercial processes for making hexafluoro-1,3-butadiene (C4F6) in the 1950s (US2777004A). Zhu and co-workers have written a detailed review of the synthesis of hexafluoro-1,3-butadiene (C4F6) which cover many of the common methods for its production (
Int. J. Org. Chem. 2014, 4, 331-338
).
hexafluoro-1,3-butadiene (C4F6) is primarily used in Reactive Ion Etching (RIE), Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE) and Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) on substrates after the photolithographic step in the seminconductor manufacturing process. Hexafluoro-1,3-butadiene (C4F6) is particularly useful in applications requiring high aspect ratio (HAR) etching as is commonly used in the production of logic and memory chips (DRAM, NAND, 3D NAND). The use of hexafluoro-1,3-butadiene (C4F6) in etching applications was first discovered by researchers at Applied Materials over 20 years ago (For early examples, see WO2000030168 A1 and WO2000059021 A1).
3M reported as series of patents with hexafluoro-1,3-butadiene (C4F6) starting in the late 1950’s focused on the co-polymerization of hexafluoro-1,3-butadiene (C4F6) to make elastomers and coatings (For early examples, see US2834766, US2915508 and US2951063). Mitsubishi Corporation reported the use of hexafluoro-1,3-butadiene (C4F6) in a gas-insulated switching device with a sealed container for insulating gases in circuit breakers or grounding switches (JPS58215902A).