Halogen-bond mediated efficient storage of extremely volatile perfluoroiodides in ionic liquids

Highly volatile and valuable reagents, perfluoroiodides were shown to complex with ionic liquids with the aid of a halogen-bond between a diverse set of anions and the electrophilic iodine atoms in perfluorinated iodides. The affinity of anions in various ionic liquids towards perfluoroiodides was examined by ¹⁹F NMR. Making use of the non-volatility of ionic liquids, we demonstrate here that perfluoroiodides can be stored and released controllably, on demand, from an ionic liquid matrix.