Fluorine Industry

The fluorine industry is intimately related to aluminum production. Aluminum oxide, (AljOj) is electrolyzed to metallic aluminum with a flux of sodium fuoroaluminate (Na AlF,), called cryolite - a rare mineral found in commercial quantities only in Greenland with other uses glass, enamels, and as a filler for resin-bonded grinding wheels. 

Navin Fluorine Industries (India) Shanghai Chemical Reagent (China)... 

Navin Chemical Enterprises, 169, 174 Navin Fluorine Industries, 169, 174 NAXOL , cyclohexanol, 96 NEA, 96... 

Starting from Trifluoroacetic Acid Derivatives Trifluoroacetic acid and its derivatives (e.g., esters, anhydride, fluoral, trifluoroethanol) are the major channel of the organic fluorine industry. They are relatively inexpensive and, compared to halons, they do not exhibit major environmental problems. They are the main source for the synthesis of trifluoromethylated compounds. 

For decades, fluorine was a laboratory curiosity and it was studied mainly by mineral chemists. As is often the case, it was coincidence and not planned research that gave rise to fluorine chemistry. The development of the organic chemistry of fluorine is a direct consequence of the Manhattan Project in order to build nuclear weapons, the isotopic enrichment of natural uranium into its radioactive isotope was needed. For this purpose, the chosen process involved gas diffusion, which required the conversion of uranium into gas uranium hexafluoride (UFs) was thus selected. In order to produce UFe gas on a large scale, fluorhydric acid and elemental fluorine were needed in industrial quantities. This was the birth of the fluorine industry. 

This is a time of transition in the organo-fluorine industry and to provide a proper perspective this article has looked backwards as much as forwards. A similar article in 20 years time is likely to present a very different picture. 

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