Progress on the Production of Isophorone Diisocyanate

Isophorone diisocyanate is industrially prepared using phosgene with a high selectivity, but phosgene has a strong toxicity and a strict control is needed when handling this compound. Nonphosgenation methods, especially reaction between IPDA and DMC, are clean production processes with mild reacton condition as well as satisfactory conversion and selectivity. Results of the economic comparison indicate that the product value using nonphosgenation process is about 5.45% more expensive than with the conventional method. Nonphosgenation methods are benign to environment and so they are promising in the future.