TetraCarbon monofluoride

Prepared by fluorinatlon of graphite at room temperature in the presence of HF. 

A stream of Fg at 4-5 liters/hr. is passed through a copper wash flask held at 0°C and filled with anhydrous HF, and then through an attached Cu tube (about 2 cm. in diameter). A Cu boat containing a thin layer of about 1 g. of graphite is placed in the tube. The end of the tube is closed with a screw-on cap having a narrow openii. The reaction is finished after one or two hours. 

Quantitative determination of F is carried out in the same manner as with carbon monofluoride. 

The composition lies within the rai e Cg gF to C F. The color of the preparation is velvety black, sometimes somewhat bluish, d (under xylene) 2.05-2.09. Resistivity 2-4 ohm cm. at 750 kg/cm  

Stable to acids, bases and the common organic reagents. Slowly decomposes when heated for a long period above 100°C. Deflagrates when rapidly heated over a flame, forming sootlike flakes. 

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Tetracarbon monofluoride, 1362 Tetrachlorodiphosphane, 4171 Tetrachlorosilane, 4173 Tetraiododiphosphane, 4637 Thiazyl fluoride, 4306... 

Tetracarbon monofluoride, 1358 Tetrachlorodiphosphane, 4165 Tetrachlorosilane, 4167 Tetraiododiphosphane, 4632 Thiazyl fluoride, 4300... 

The structure of tetracarbon monofluoride (C4F) has been discussed by Riidorff Riidorff (1947 6) and Riidorff (1959). While it cannot be unequivocally demonstrated from their X-ray powder diffraction data, they proposed that in C4F the carbon atom sheets were flat and that the fluorine atoms made close ca. 1.4 Af) contacts to the carbons. Their finding ofhigh electrical conductivity for C4Fj, j(HF)4 also supported their notion that the carbon atom sheets were planar. Recent work in these laboratories (Mallouk Bartlett 1983 Mallouk 1983) has established that chemical fluorination of graphite, to compositions C4.Fj, 5(HF),5, x > 2.3, may... 

Like carbon monofluoride, tetracarbon monofluoride is also very inert, though it is appreciably less stable thermally. It is completely stable in... 

When warmed above 100° tetracarbon monofluoride preparations begin to decompose and when rapidly heated they deflagrate—sometimes with flame—and leave a very finely divided soot. Decomposition also occurs when the compound is gradually heated to 200-300° in a stream of fluorine or of a fluorine-hydrogen fluoride mixture. Thus it is not possible to convert the compound to carbon monofluoride by further fluo-rination. 

Structural studies made up to the present lead to the generalization that in a graphite compoimd all C—C distances in the carbon layers, apart from lattice imperfections, are the same and that the layers are either plane or puckered, even when some of the carbon atoms have a different type of bonding. In carbon monofluoride and tetracarbon monofluoride the two possible structures for the carbon layers are realized. 

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