Fluorine measurement, total organic

One of the oldest methods in the literature for the measurement of organic fluorine compounds is the Wickbold method [125], where organic fluorine is converted to hydrogen fluoride via combustion. The Wickbold method is useful for determining the total organic fluorine content of a sample, but is nonspecihc and does not provide information on individual fluorinated molecules. In addition, for samples containing PFCs, the combustion may lead to incomplete decomposition and subsequent underestimation of the total fluorine content of the sample [125]. 

No absolute rate data exist for fluorine atom additions to olefins. This is not at all surprising in view of the tremendous experimental difficulties in carrying out reactions between fluorine and organic compounds of almost any sort. Rowland and co-workers [45] have been studying the interaction of fluorine atoms with a variety of compounds, however, and these include olefins. Relative rate data are given in Table 11 in a form such that the inter- and intramolecular reactivity of various unsaturated carbons is normalized against ethylene. The total reactivity is, of course, the summation of the positional reactivities of the individual carbons for any given compound. Rowland and co-workers [45a] have also measured the relative reactivity of the terminal versus the central carbon of propene towards fluorine atoms, and find the terminal position to be 1.35 times more reactive. 

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