ABSTRACT
The cleavage of carbon-carbon bonds in the course of exhaustive chlorination of hydrocarbons was discovered by Krafft and Merz [1] in 1875 and first named "chlorinolysis" by McBee and his co-workers [2]. Nowadays the shorter term "chlorolysis" is used. If aliphatic hydrocarbons are chlorolyzed at normal pressure and temperatures of about 450 to 500oe, they mainly yield compounds such as carbon tetrachloride, perchloroethylene, hexachloroethane, hexachlorobutadiene, hexachlorocyclopentadiene, and hexachlorobenzene. Benzene and alkylbenzenes, however, are chiefly converted to hexachlorobenzene, which is cleaved only under stronger conditions.
