Fluonnation of alkanes

The reactivity of the halogens decreases m the order F2 > CI2 > Br2 > I2 Fluo rme is an extremely aggressive oxidizing agent and its reaction with alkanes is strongly exothermic and difficult to control Direct fluonnation of alkanes requires special equip ment and techniques is not a reaction of general applicability and will not be discussed further... 

Similar preference in replacement by fluorine of tertiary versus secondary and secondary versus primary hydrogens is observed in the fluonnation of alkanes with chlorine tnfluonde in 1,2-difluorotetrachIoroethane at room temperature (Table 3). Skeletal rearrangements accompany the fluorination [77]... 

Deep fluonnation of alkanes, ethers, acid halides, esters, alkyl chlorides, most ketones, ketals, orthoesters, and combinations of these functional groups produces principally the perfluonnated analogues (Table 2) Chlorine substituents (or chloro groups) usually survive fluormation... 

Chlorination of alkanes is less exothermic than fluonnation and bromination less exothermic than chlorination Iodine is unique among the halogens m that its reaction with alkanes is endothermic and alkyl iodides are never prepared by lodmation of alkanes... 

The high reactivity of N-H bonds has also been exploited to produce N-F denvatives without significant substitution on neighbonng C-H bonds, Diethyl-phosphoramidates of ammonia, alkylammes, and a,polar solvents to produce difluoroamine [57], N,N-difluoroalkylamines, and a,to-bis(At,7V-difluoroamino)alkanes [52] Acetamide undergoes fluonnation to give modest yields of N,N difluoroacetatnide and acetyl fluonde when fluorinated... 

Highly fluonnated alkanes are also reduced by alkali metals Lithium amalgam converts polytetrafluoroethyleneto acarbon polymer composed of monolayer nbbons of six membered rings with hthium atoms bound to the edges [i]... 

Oxidations of higly fluonnated alkanes and cycloalkanes are rare because of the resistance of these compounds to oxidation agents Reactive centers include C-H and C-I bonds (oxidations of lodo compounds at lodme atom are descnbed in a special part of this chapter)... 

A fluonnated dimethyl ether is assigned the same number as the corresponding Cj alkane prefixed with an "E , a nomenclature recently adopted by the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) in the United States... 

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