Structural chemistry of decalins and perfluorodecalins

Abstract

Ambient pressure crystalline phases of decalins and perfluorodecalins are described. The fluorinated analogues of decalins are compounds of special interest due to their excellent gas-solubility properties regardless of the isomer. The aim of this work was to obtain crystals of the compounds and analyze the packing of the molecules to check if some voids are present in the phases of perfluorodecalins, as in, e.g. gas hydrate clathrates, thus preserving the properties of the liquid phase with dissolved gases. All the single crystals were prepared using an IR laser-assisted process directly on the goniometer of a single-crystal diffractometer. In addition, powder diagrams for flash-cooled samples were recorded. Raman spectroscopy supported the experiments for the crystalline and liquid phases.