Preparation of Acetonitrile Cations with Trifluoromethanesulfonate Triflate Anions

PREPARATION OF ACETONITRILE CATIONS WITH TRIFLUOROMETHANESULFONATE (TRIFLATE) ANIONS 

In applications for which greater solubility is desired the trifluoromethanesulfo-nate (triflate) counterion is a better choice than tetrafluoroborate. Although (CF3SO3) is more highly coordinating than (BF4), it is quite labile and displays high thermal stability. Triflate salts are used widely as anions for highly cationic clusters in order to increase their solubility and volatility for mass spectrometric analysis. 

All glassware is pretreated with the commercially available reagent glassclad, dried in an oven at 125°C for at least one hour, and cooled in a vacuum 

---