Organic fluorine compounds: a great opportunity for enhanced materials properties

Abstract

Interactions of “organic fluorine” have gained great interest not only in the context of crystal engineering, but also in the systematic design of functional materials. The first part of this tutorial review presents an overview on interactions known by organic fluorine. This involves π–π_F, C–F⋯H, F⋯F, C–F⋯π_F, C–F⋯π, C–F⋯M⁺, C–F⋯CO and anion–π_F interactions, as well as other halogen bonds. The effect of the exchange of H vs. F is discussed by means of several examples and a short introduction to the young field of “fluorous” chemistry is given. The second part is dedicated to numerous applications of fluorine and fluorous interactions. It is shown how application of fluorination is used to enable a number of reactions, to improve materials properties and even open up new fields of research.