Enabling nucleophilic reactivity in molecular calcium fluoride complexes
Enabling nucleophilic reactivity in molecular calcium fluoride complexes
14 May 2024
CaF2 is the source of all fluorochemicals. However, little understanding of the reactivity of Ca–F moieties is available to help develop methods to directly incorporate fluoride from CaF2 into(in)organic molecules.
In a study published today in Nature Chemistry, Job Struijs and co-workers in the Aldridge and Gouverneur groups in the Department of Chemistry describe their synthesis of a library of molecular Ca–F complexes featuring novel structural motifs, including via the defluorination of C–F bonds. Both the rate and efficacy of nucleophilic fluoride delivery were found to be correlated with the presence of key structural motifs.