Practical In Situ Generation of Phosphorus Pentafluoride as a Metal-Free Potent Lewis Acid
- 1Laboratoire de Chimie Organique, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB, Avenue F. D. Roosevelt 50, Brussels, Belgium, B-1050
- 2Laboratoire de Résonance Magnétique Nucléaire Haute Résolution, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB, Avenue F. D. Roosevelt 50, Brussels, Belgium, B-1050
Abstract
Metal-free potent Lewis acids are of great interest in the pharmaceutical and food industries to avoid metal contaminants. Phosphorus pentafluoride (PF 5 ) is a potent Lewis acid, but its practical use is severely restricted by its gaseous state and corrosiveness. Here we report a simple and convenient method for either the rapid or slow in situ generation of PF 5 from widely available and easy to handle hexafluorophosphate (PF 6 − ) salts and either aluminum chloride (AlCl 3 ) or boron trifluoride etherate (BF 3 ·Et 2 O), respectively. The potency of PF 5 in Lewis acid catalysis is demonstrated in the tandem Friedel–Craft alkylation of thiophene derivatives with ketones, where PF 5 outperforms conventional Lewis acids such as BF 3 ·Et 2 O, AlCl 3 , and SnCl 4 .
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BibTeX
@misc{lavendomme2026practical,
title = {{Practical In Situ Generation of Phosphorus Pentafluoride as a Metal-Free Potent Lewis Acid}},
author = {Roy Lavendomme and Alexia Dussart and Alice Dufau--Malon and Ivan Jabin},
howpublished = {ChemRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.26434/chemrxiv.15010018/v1},
url = {https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15010018/v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Practical In Situ Generation of Phosphorus Pentafluoride as a Metal-Free Potent Lewis Acid
AU - Roy Lavendomme
AU - Alexia Dussart
AU - Alice Dufau--Malon
AU - Ivan Jabin
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/07
PB - ChemRxiv
DO - 10.26434/chemrxiv.15010018/v1
UR - https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15010018/v1
AB - Metal-free potent Lewis acids are of great interest in the pharmaceutical and food industries to avoid metal contaminants. Phosphorus pentafluoride (PF 5 ) is a potent Lewis acid, but its practical use is severely restricted by its gaseous state and corrosiveness. Here we report a simple and convenient method for either the rapid or slow in situ generation of PF 5 from widely available and easy to handle hexafluorophosphate (PF 6 − ) salts and either aluminum chloride (AlCl 3 ) or boron trifluoride etherate (BF 3 ·Et 2 O), respectively. The potency of PF 5 in Lewis acid catalysis is demonstrated in the tandem Friedel–Craft alkylation of thiophene derivatives with ketones, where PF 5 outperforms conventional Lewis acids such as BF 3 ·Et 2 O, AlCl 3 , and SnCl 4 .
ER -