Central Glass Company, Limited

Kenji Fujii

Yoshiyuki Kobayashi

Yasushi Kita

Tamio Nakamura

Hiroaki Sakaguchi

Shigenori Sakai

The invention relates to a method of preparing a sulfonimide, a first salt thereof, or a second salt thereof. The method includes the step of: (a) reacting one or two sulfonyl fluorides with nonhydrous ammonia and an amine component which is one of a tertiary amine and a heterocyclic amine, so as to prepare the first salt. Alternatively, the method includes the step of: (a) reacting the sulfonyl fluoride with the amine component and a sulfonamide, so as to prepare the first salt. The method further optionally includes, after the step (a), the step of: (b) reacting, in an aqueous solution, the first salt with a metal compound, so as to prepare the second salt. The method still further optionally includes, after the step (a), the step of: (c) reacting the first salt with a strong acid so as to prepare the sulfonimide. Alternatively, the method further optionally includes, after the step (b), the step of: (d) reacting the second salt with a strong acid so as to prepare the sulfonimide. The sulfonimide, the first salt or the second salt is easily economically prepared in an industrial scale production with high purity and high yield.

Method of preparing sulfonimide or its salt

A process for producing methanesulfonyl fluoride involves reacting methanesulfonyl chloride, a metal fluoride and water to obtain a reaction product, subjecting the reaction product to distillation in the presence of water in an amount of 0.7 times or more the amount of the methanesulfonyl chloride to obtain a distillate. The distillate has a water layer and a methanesulfonyl fluoride layer. The distillate is subjected to phase separation to separate the methanesulfonyl fluoride layer from the water layer, and the methanesulfonyl fluoride is recovered.

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Ube, Japan

Kenji Fujii