Name: Piotr Dudzinski
Diploma / M.Sc degree: Adam Mickiewicz University Poznan, Poland
(June 2012)

PhD Project: Development of new building blocks containing SF₅(CF₂)_n moieties

Abstract of Research Project

The field of fluoroorganic chemistry has been rapidly developing within the last decades. It is noteworthy that the vast majority of modern pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals contain at least one fluorine atom. Moreover, fluorine containing organic compounds have been used in preparation of advanced materials such as polymers and liquid crystals.

Among fluorine containing functional groups, the pentafluorosulfanyl group (SF₅) deserves special attention. It has been recently named as the ‘super trifluoromethyl (CF₃) group’ and the ‘substituent of future’. Owing to its peculiar properties such as thermal and chemical stability, strong electonegativity and significant lipophilicity this group may offer interesting properties in terms of the design of new biologically active agents and novel materials.

This project is designed to synthesize and evaluate new building blocks containing SF₅(CF₂)_n moieties. It is expected that such substituents introduced in more complex organic structures will exhibit interesting properties in between those of the CF₃ and SF₅ containing compounds. The (CF₂)_n moiety can serve as a ‘spacer’ decreasing the sterical demand of the SF₅ group, while maintaining the lipophilicity and the group electronegativity.