BF3

They are colourless liquids with characteristic odours, and are prepared by the condensation of ketones with alkyl orthoformates in the presence of alcohols, or by the reaction of acetylenes with alcohols in presence of HgO and BF3. In some cases trichloroethanoic acid is used as the catalyst. They lose alcohol when heated and form vinyl ethers. Exchange of alcohol groups occurs when the ketals of the lower alcohols are boiled with alcohols of greater molecular weight. See acetals. 

It forms an ion BCI4 only under special circumstances, and never in aqueous solutions (cf. BF3). Like the trifluoride, it is an electron pair acceptor, but the adducts formed tend to decompose more readily. Unlike the corresponding aluminium chloride, boron trichloride exists only as the monomer. 

Acylation may also be effected with the acetic acid - boron trifluoride complexes BF3.CH3COOH and BF3.2CH3COOH. 

The D-A rxn is promoted by Lewis acids (T1CI4, BF3 AICI3, AIEt2CI, SnCLj,...)... 

These studies at the same time aroused my interest in the mechanistic aspects of the reaetions, including the complexes of RCOF and RF with BF3 (and eventually with other Lewis acid fluorides) as well as the complexes they formed with aromatics. 1 isolated for the first time at low temperatures arenium tetrafluoroborates (the elusive (T-complexes of aromatic substitutions), although I had no means to pursue their structural study. Thus my long fascination with the chemistry of car-bocationic complexes began. 

My early work with acyl fluorides also involved formyl fluoride, ITCOF, the only stable acyl halide of formic acid, which was first made in 1933 by Nyesmeyanov, who did not, however, pursue its chemistry. 1 developed its use as a formylating agent and also explored formyla-tion reactions with CO and HF, catalyzed by BF3. 

In a generalized sense, acids are electron pair acceptors. They include both protic (Bronsted) acids and Lewis acids such as AlCb and BF3 that have an electron-deficient central metal atom. Consequently, there is a priori no difference between Bronsted (protic) and Lewis acids. In extending the concept of superacidity to Lewis acid halides, those stronger than anhydrous aluminum chloride (the most commonly used Friedel-Crafts acid) are considered super Lewis acids. These superacidic Lewis acids include such higher-valence fluorides as antimony, arsenic, tantalum, niobium, and bismuth pentafluorides. Superacidity encompasses both very strong Bronsted and Lewis acids and their conjugate acid systems. 

Whereas superaeid (HF/BF3, HF/SbF, HF/TaF FS03FI/SbF3, etc.)-eatalyzed hydroearbon transformations were first explored in the liquid phase, subsequently, solid aeid eatalyst systems, sueh as those based on Nafion-H, longer-chain perfluorinated alkanesulfonic acids, fluorinated graphite intercalates, etc. were also developed and utilized for heterogeneous reactions. The strong acidic nature of zeolite catalysts was also successfully explored in cases such as FI-ZSM-5 at high temperatures. 

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