Effect of lone-pair repulsion on the reactivity and selectivity of fluoroalkyl radicals

Amr El-Soueni*, John M. Tedder, Luc L.T. Vertommen, John C. Walton

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The relative rates of addition of trifluoromethyl, pentafluoroethyl, heptafluoroisopropyl, and nonafluoro-t-butyl radicals to ethylene and vinyl fluoride show that these radicals become increasingly selective as they become branched and there is a direct correlation between the logarithm of orientation of addition to vinyl fluoride of each radical and the pKa's of the corresponding perfluoroalkyl hydrides [CF3H, CF3CF 2H, (CF3)2CFH, and (CF3) 3CH]; these observations suggest that repulsion between the lone pair electrons on an α-fluorine atom and the unpaired electron on the trivalent carbon atom plays an important part in determining the reactivity of these radicals.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)504-505
Number of pages2
JournalJournal of the Chemical Society, Chemical Communications
Issue number14
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 1977

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