Appearance Colourless gas ChemSpider ID 71322 Molar mass 104.004012 | Pubchem 78989 Chemical formula OCF; 4 Boiling point −95 °C (−139 °F; 178 K) | |
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Melting point −213 °C (−351.4 °F; 60.1 K) | ||
Trifluoromethyl hypofluorite is an organofluorine compound with the formula CF
3OF. It exists as a colorless gas at room temperature and is highly toxic. It is a rare example of a hypofluorite (compound with an O-F bond). It is prepared by the fluorination of carbon monoxide:
The gas hydrolyzes only slowly at neutral pH.
Use in organic chemistry
The compound is a source of electrophilic fluorine. It has been used for the preparation of α-fluoroketones from silyl enol ethers. Behaving like a pseudohalogen, it adds to ethylene to give the ether:
CF3OF + CH2CH2 → CF3OCH2CH2FReferences
Trifluoromethyl hypofluorite Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA