Fluorine characteristics

Elemental fluorine and the fluoride ion are highly toxic. The free element has a characteristic pungent odor, detectable in concentrations as low as 20 ppb, which is below the safe working level. The recommended maximum allowable concentration for a daily 8-hour time-weighted exposure is 1 ppm. 

Carbon-fluorine bonds are quite strong (slightly stronger than C—H bonds) and like polyethylene Teflon is a very stable inert material We are all familiar with the most characteristic property of Teflon its nonstick surface This can be understood by com paring Teflon and polyethylene The high electronegativity of fluorine makes C—P bonds less polarizable than C—H bonds causing the dispersion forces m Teflon to be less than those m polyethylene Thus the surface of Teflon is even less sticky than the already slick surface of polyethylene... 

Substitution of fluorine for hydrogen in an organic compound has a profound influence on the compound s chemical and physical properties. Several factors that are characteristic of fluorine and that underHe the observed effects are the large electronegativity of fluorine, its small size, the low degree of polarizabiHty of the carbon—fluorine bond and the weak intermolecular forces. These effects are illustrated by the comparisons of properties of fluorocarbons to chlorocarbons and hydrocarbons in Tables 1 and 2. 

The presence of carbon—fluorine bonds in organic polymers is known to characteristically impart polymer stabiUty and solvent resistance. The poly(fluorosibcones) are siloxane polymers with fluorinated organic substituents bonded to siUcon. Poly(fluorosibcones) have unique appHcations resulting from the combination provided by fluorine substitution into a siloxane polymer stmcture (see Silicon compounds, silicones). 

Other Inorganics. Inorganic species in solution have been studied very effectively by Raman spectroscopy. Work in this area includes the investigation of coordination compounds (qv) of fluorine (qv) (40), the characterization of low dimensional materials (41) and coordinated ligands (42), and single-crystal studies (43). Several compilations of characteristic vibrational frequencies of main-group elements have been pubflshed to aid in the identification of these species (44,45). 

At 225—275°C, bromination of the vapor yields bromochloromethanes CCl Br, CCl2Br2, and CClBr. Chloroform reacts with aluminum bromide to form bromoform, CHBr. Chloroform cannot be direcdy fluorinated with elementary flourine fluoroform, CHF, is produced from chloroform by reaction with hydrogen fluoride in the presence of a metallic fluoride catalyst (8). It is also a coproduct of monochlorodifluoromethane from the HF—CHCl reaction over antimony chlorofluoride. Iodine gives a characteristic purple solution in chloroform but does not react even at the boiling point. Iodoform, CHI, may be produced from chloroform by reaction with ethyl iodide in the presence of aluminum chloride however, this is not the route normally used for its preparation. 

In other work Rozen added molecular fluorine to a steroidal ene-one dissolved in ethanol at low temperatures to produce a vicinal difluonde in a cleaner, better yield reaction than previously obtainable [55] Although the reaction was not general, the stereoselectivity was very high, and contrary to addition of other halogens, addition was r>ii, characteristic of an electrophilic addition pathway... 

Fluorinated cyclobutanes and cyclobutenes are relatively easy to prepare because of the propensity of many gem-difluoroolefins to thermally cyclodimerize and cycloadd to alkenes and alkynes. Even with dienes, fluoroolefins commonly prefer to form cyclobutane rather than six-membered-ring Diels-Alder adducts. Tetrafluoroethylene, chlorotrifluoroethylene, and l,l-dichloro-2,2-difluoroethyl-ene are especially reactive in this context. Most evidence favors a stepwise diradical or, less often, a dipolar mechanism for [2+2] cycloadditions of fluoroalkenes [S5, (5], although arguments for a symmetry-allowed, concerted [2j-t-2J process persist [87], The scope, characteristic features, and mechanistic studies of fluoroolefin... 

Sulfanuric halides contain the characteristic group -N=S(0)X- (X = Cl, F). Unlike the isoelectronic cyclophosphazenes (NPClajx (x = 3-17), " only six-membered rings have been well characterized. The sulfanuric halides are colourless solids (X = Cl) or liquids (X = F), which are stable in dry air. Sulfanuric chloride [NS(0)C1]3 is best prepared by treatment of SOCI2 with sodium azide in acetonitrile at -35°C (Eq. 8.16). It may also be obtained as a mixture of a- and yS-isomers in a two-stage reaction from H2NSO3H and PCls. The fluoride [NS(0)F]3 is formed as a mixture of isomers by the fluorination of [NS(0)C1]3 with Sbp3. ... 

Also in the divalent state, Pd and Pt show the class-b characteristic of preferring CN and ligands with nitrogen or heavy donor atoms rather than oxygen or fluorine. Platinum(IV) by contrast is more nearly class-a in character and is frequently reduced to Pt by P- and Aj-donor ligands. The organometallic chemistry of these metals is rich and varied and that involving unsaturated hydrocarbons is the most familiar of its type. 

Fluorine compounds (m/zs 19, 31, 50, and 69) Rearrangement ion characteristic of hydroxyl compounds... 

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