Fluoride Ion Interactions in Alkali-Metal Fluoride-Diol Complexes

Inorg Chem. 2020 May 4;59(9):6631-6639. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.0c00783. Epub 2020 Apr 22.

Abstract

The activity of F- is an important factor in the design of both inorganic and organic reactions involving fluorine compounds. The present study investigates interactions of F- with diols in alkali-metal fluoride-diol complexes. Increases in the reactivities of alkali-metal fluorides and their solubilities in alcohols is observed with increasing cation size. The difference in alkali-metal ion size produces different structural motifs for F--diol complex salts. The CsF complex salt with ethylene glycol (EG), CsF-EG, has a layered structure, whereas the Rb and K complex salts, (RbF)5-(EG)4 and (KF)5-(EG)4, form columnar structures. Comparison of the CsF complex salts with three different diols- EG, 1,3-propylene glycol (PG13), and 1,4-butylene glycol (PG14)-revealed that the diol chain length affects the bridging mode in their layered structures. EG bridges two OH oxygen atoms within the same CsF layer in CsF-EG, whereas PG13 and BG14 bridge two OH oxygen atoms in different CsF layers in (CsF)2-PG13 and CsF-BG14, respectively. The F- ion coordination environment involves interactions between alkali-metal ions and H atom(s) in the diol OH groups, where the F-···H interactions are more dominant than the F-···M+ interaction, based on Hirshfeld surface analyses. The O-H bond weakening observed by infrared spectroscopy also reflects the strengths of the F-···H interactions in these complex salts.