Introduction

This chapter briefly describes the basic chemistry of fluorine-containing substances discussing physical property changes and effects on the reactivity caused by the introduction of the fluorine atom as well as the care required when handling fluorinated materials. When a fluorine atom is introduced into a molecule, one sometimes expects the enhancement or modification of the original biological activity. Actually, there are a number of cases where just one fluorine causes a tremendous change in the parent physical properties, the most famous and important example being the profound effect of fluoroacetic acid in the original acetic acid metabolic system, the TCA cycle. Direct incorporation of fluorine-containing groups is also possible, and the major part of the process is the reaction of perfluorinated halides with carbonyl compounds mediated by some specific metals, which is again recognized as a very straightforward preparation method.