9310389 Shreeve Professors Shreeve and Kirchmeier of the University of Idaho will investigate the synthesis of fluorophosphazenes with support from the Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Chemistry Program. Although synthetic phosphazene chemistry has been a fertile area of research for many years, the fluorophosphazenes have been relatively untouched. Shreeve and Kirchmeier will prepare cyclophosphazenes as well as polyphosphazenes with fluorine atoms attached both to the skeletal atoms as well as to substituent groups such as fluoroalkoxides, fluorophenoxides, and fluoroalkyls. Many of the syntheses will take advantage of fluoro-organosilanes as reagents to introduce the fluoro-groups into the phosphazenes. It is anticipated that the phosphazenes, already a promising class of compounds, will display improved properties in their fluorinated forms. %%% There is a class of inorganic compounds, called the phosphazenes, which are similar to organic compounds in the sense that they are constructed around a skeleton of linked atoms; however, instead of carbon atoms the skeleton is made of alternating phosphorus and nitrogen atoms. Phosphazenes can be prepared both as discrete molecules and as polymers, and they are finding certain commercial applications. Just as Teflon is related to simple organic compounds through the replacement of hydrogen with fluorine atoms, in the present research project a series of fluorine-substituted phosphazenes will be prepared. The basic chemistry of these compounds will be explored, but it is anticipated that they will display improved properties relative to their unfluorinated relatives. ***
