The goal of this project in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry Program is the synthesis and characterization of a wide variety of new fluorine-containing nitrogen and/or phosphorus compounds. It is expected that the presence of fluorine will endow the new compounds with desirable properties, such as special high temperature stabilities and concommitant high densities and long liquid ranges, compared to nonfluorinated analogs. The target compounds for synthesis are in three families: (A) fluorinated cyclophosphazenes and polyphosphazenes; (B) fluorinated tetrazoles and other tetraza-5-membered ring systems; and (C) fluorinated high-nitrogen compounds. Many of the new compounds will be synthesized by procedures analogous to those used for nonfluorinated analogs, but using fluorinated starting materials. In other cases fluorination will be accomplished with either carbonyl fluoride or trifluoroamine oxide. The new compounds will be characterized by a variety of spectroscopic methods and by x-ray and electron diffraction structural techniques.
